Institutionalized Citizen Participation and Civic Organizations in Brazil: Horizontal and Vertical Relationships in Social Assistance Policy

This article examines the impact of participatory institutional arrangements between different social and civil organizations in Brazil. Taking the field of social assistance as a case study, the article argues that various institutionalized mechanisms for citizen participation, such as conferences and management councils, promote the development of a “vertical” sectoral network, through which public policies can be controlled from the federal to the local level, and a “horizontal” territorial network, in which various sectoral issues are activated within the same territory. This dual articulation promotes greater associative density: the territorial networks have better knowledge of the specific policies implemented in their cities; and the sectoral networks, besides participating in all stages of policy implementation, can understand their impact at the national and local level.