Democratization or asymmetry of representation: notes on State Councils for Food and Nutrition Safety
Councils are a key institutional innovation within the Brazilian post-1988 constitutional framework. They are structured so as to include representatives of civil society and the State within the same arena. The aim of this article is to engage in critical discussion on the representation of social...
Guardado en:
| Autores principales: | , , |
|---|---|
| Formato: | Artículo publishedVersion |
| Lenguaje: | Portugués |
| Publicado: |
Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC)
2010
|
| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/politica/article/view/2175-7984.2010v9n16p115 http://biblioteca.clacso.edu.ar/gsdl/cgi-bin/library.cgi?a=d&c=br/br-033&d=article13390oai |
| Aporte de: |
| Sumario: | Councils are a key institutional innovation within the Brazilian post-1988
constitutional framework. They are structured so as to include representatives
of civil society and the State within the same arena. The aim of this
article is to engage in critical discussion on the representation of social
organizations within these arenas. Our hypothesis suggests that representatives
often distance themselves so much from their social base that
they actually become a sort of elite. Thus, we raise the issue of whether
the formal democratic structure and mechanisms that these councils
incorporate are enough to guarantee a diversity of representatives and
representational practices, or if, through the social and political resources
that representatives hold, gaps between constituents’ demands and representatives’
actions re-emerge, notwithstanding the normative precepts
of equality that the councils themselves advocate.
Keywords: councils, elites, representation.
|
|---|