Políticas públicas, democracia e combate à pobreza: um estudo sobre a relevância da participação popular na gestão de políticas públicas de combate à pobreza em órgão colegiado da administração pública estadual

Abstract

Poverty constitutes a debilitating element of the human condition and its confrontation reveals itself as a fundamental republican objective, supported by the constitutional vectors of human dignity and the realization of fundamental rights under the social qualification conferred on the Brazilian Democratic Rule of Law State by its constitutional text. The responsibility of the Brazilian State to provide decent levels of existence for its population is improved, among other measures, through public policies that promote processes, resources and measures for the factual achievement of the objectives and constitutional guidelines involved in this mission. Under the pillars of a democratic regime, participation is presented as a criterion for the legitimacy of state choices, especially with regard to those involved in providing material conditions for human development in its multiple aspects of experience. Within the scope of Brazilian Public Administration, the constitutionalization and democratization of administrative activity allowed the institutionalization of participatory elements for the combined formation between State and society of decisions that impact the collective environment. Public policy management councils present themselves, to this extent, as instruments with the potential to improve the democratic management of public policies, allowing the insertion into the state structure of social sectors capable of influencing the formation of the public agenda and enabling the formulation of policies better suited to the reality of the intended audience. From this panorama, the problem faced consists of investigating the effectiveness of popular participation in the management of public policies to combat poverty through social councils, given the constitutional vectors of dignity and realization of fundamental rights that structure the brazilian Democratic Rule of Law State and its Public Administration. Using the inductive method and qualitative approach, the research presented a bibliographic and documentary design that allowed the investigation of the problem through the case study of a social policy council in the state of Alagoas, called the Integrated Council for Social Inclusion Policies, responsible for managing resources from the State Fund for Combating and Eradicating Poverty - FECOEP. The analysis carried out demonstrated the need for improvement in the process of participatory management of policies to combat poverty in the Alagoas scenario, given the deficient proceduralization of its management council which refers to insufficient standards, incomplete compliance with legal powers and the absence of popular participation that institutionalizes the social sectors directly related to combating poverty in its deliberations, which impacts the effectiveness of the council's fulfillment of its constitutional purposes.