Civic Learning, Challenges and Possibilities in Public Policy Management

Introduction

In the last three decades, Brazil has become a laboratory of experiences of democratic participation. Policy management councils or simply “policy councils” are important deliberative spaces for democratic debates and civic education, permeated by public and private actors who can exert significant influence on the cycle of public policy formation. This participatory model proposes new interactions between the state and civil society, enabling citizen participation in the formulation of public policies, through decentralization of public management. To participate in those spaces, citizens need to be autonomous and able to accommodate diverse experiences and viewpoints. This entry analyzes how deliberative democracy in the form of participatory policy councils provides new lens on civic education practices and political participation in public policy management councils in Brazil. It underlines the process of civic learning among council participants by showing how...