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Civil Organizations and

Political Pepresentation in Brazil`s
Participatory Institutions
'RAZIELA #ASTELLO !DRIN 'URZA ,AVALLE
AND 0ETER 0 (OUTZAGER
1here is considerable evidence that civil organizations such as
advocacy NGOs, membership organizations and community associa-
tions have become DE FACTO and DE JURE representatives ot particular
segments ot the population and interests in the design, implementation
and monitoring ot public policy. Governments are, tor a variety ot
reasons, inviting this set ot collective actors into institutionalized
spaces tor policymaking, in either a consultative or a deliberative
role. Conversely, many civil organizations are themselves pressur-
ing governments to create such spaces, in order to gain access to
policymaking centres. 1he institutions that have been created over
the past tventy years to link these actors and policymakers, such
as the systems ot deliberative development councils in Guatemala
and ot policy councils in Brazil, are otten part ot larger democratic
decentralization retorms that, at least tormally, seek to redistribute
pover vithin the state and betveen state and society (Heller :oo+,
Grindle +,,,,.
Students ot the nev participatory institutions and the role civil
organizations play in them have not identited the issue ot political
representation as an important one, because this issue is masked by
the emphasis put on citizen participation`, vhich is seen as the
toundation ot contemporary democratization. Institutions such as
the councils in Brazil are otten reterred to as spaces tor citizen
participation`, even though more otten than not they bring collec-
tive actors (rather than individual citizens, into contact vith public
ottcials (Gurza Iavalle et al. :oo,. We are not vitnessing simply an
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increase in opportunity tor citizen participation, but a broader process
ot RECONlGURATION OF POLITICAL REPRESENTATION in vhich civil organizations
play a central role.
1he contribution ot this recontguration to greater political
inclusion and democratization hinges in part on hov the dilemmas
ot civil organizations` REPRESENTATIVENESS are resolved. We believe, on
the one hand, that as netvorks ot advocacy NGOs, membership
organizations and community associations acquire a nev role in
political representation, the current processes ot the recontguration
ot representation around the executive may converge to produce
more inclusive democracy. Similar to the emergence ot mass political
parties, vhich contributed to the expansion ot institutions ot politi-
cal representation and ot democracy itselt in the early decades ot
the tventieth century, the contemporary shitts in torms ot political
representation involve changes in the vorkings ot the traditional
institutions ot representative government and an expansion ot the
locus and the tunctions ot political representation.
On the other hand, the consequences ot this recontguration tor
political inclusion and democratization depend in some measure
on the ansvers to tvo linked questions. Who do civil organizations
represent vhen they act as representatives in the polity, and in vhat
terms is this representation constructed 1he large majority ot organi-
zations that engage in political representation do not have electoral
mechanisms through vhich they can establish their representativeness
that is, build a mandate and ensure accountability and most are
not membership-based. lurthermore, there are no vell-established or
videly accepted models ot hov civil organizations could establish
their representativeness beyond these tvo classic mechanisms. Civil
organizations theretore tace a signitcant challenge vhen it comes
to establishing their representativeness.
1his chapter explores some ot the ettorts to meet this challenge
using the tndings ot a survey ot ::, civil organizations that is,
neighbourhood or community associations, membership organiza-
tions, NGOs, and coordinators ot netvorks ot these organizations
in the city ot So Paulo (population +o million, vithin municipal
boundaries,. 1he survey vas undertaken in :oo: and used sampling
criteria that tavoured organizations that vere actively vorking vith
(or on the behalt ot , the urban lover middle class, the vorking
class and the poor.
1
Because this universe ot organizations vorks
vith or tor social groups that are said to be marginalized in classic
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representative institutions and trom centres ot political pover, their
role as representatives is especially relevant to the debates on the
direction ot contemporary democracy and vhether greater political
inclusion is in the ottng.
So Paulo is a torerunner case` that may renect vhat lies on
democracy`s horizon. 1he city is the largest and politically most
diverse in Brazil, a country that has since its democratic transition
in +, become a democratic laboratory ot enormous dimen-
sions. It has a tradition ot councils linked to lett-ving actors, has
experimented vith participatory budgeting and other participatory
institutions, and has a long-standing presence ot societal actors linked
to popular sectors, such as the housing and health movements. Civil
organizations in So Paulo and elsevhere in Brazil have, turthermore,
achieved notable innuence in various areas ot public policy since
the end ot the military dictatorship in +,, and particularly since
the +, Constitution. As the research agenda on the democratiza-
tion ot democracy suggests, vith its empirical tocus on Brazil and
other middle- and lov-income countries, perhaps tor the trst time
democracy and the cutting edge ot democratizing retorms are being
imagined and constructed in the southern hemisphere.
#IVIL /RGANIZATIONS 2EPRESENTATION AND $EMOCRACY
1he processes ot state retorm that have untolded in recent years, and
in particular the vave ot institutional innovations that have created
nev opportunities tor citizen participation in policy processes, have
intensited the political protagonism ot civil organizations. In the case
ot So Paulo, almost tvo-thirds ot our sample ot organizations that
vork vith or tor the urban poor participate in at least one ot the
nev participatory institutional arrangements, namely the participatory
budget or the policy councils (Houtzager et al. :oo,. lurthermore,
the actors have a broad representative commitment in So Paulo
almost three-quarters explicitly assert that they represent the social
groups that take part in or benett trom their activities. And, vhen
ve take into account the ditterent torms ot political representation
that lie vithin reach ot these actors, ve tnd that claims ot engag-
ing in political representation are associated vith actual political
practices during vhich representation is likely to occur. 1he inverse
relationship is as consistent: civil organizations that carry out tev