Deliberating Democracy: Scenes from a Brazilian Municipal Health Council

Cornwall, Andrea

Abstract

Brazil's health councils appear to offer inspiring examples of what Fung and Wright (2003) term empowered participatory governance. But what happens in practice? This article narrates an episode in the life of a municipal health council in northeast Brazil, in which democracy itself came under deliberation. It seeks to locate normative assumptions embedded in theories of deliberative democracy and participatory governance in everyday conduct in one of these institutions. It suggests that assessing the democratizing potential of the myriad new spaces that now populate governance landscapes the world over calls for far closer attention to be paid to power, political culture, and politics.

Citation

Cornwall, A. (2008). Deliberating Democracy: Scenes from a Brazilian Municipal Health Council. Politics and Society, 36(4), 508-531. https://doi.org/10.1177/0032329208324718

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Dec 1, 2008
• Deposit Date: Feb 6, 2012
• Journal: Politics and Society
• Print ISSN: 0032-3292
• Electronic ISSN: 1552-7514
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 36
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 508-531
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0032329208324718
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0032329208324718