Political parties and participatory democracy: political status and associative profile in participatory budgeting of Brazil

The article explores the relationships between the political status of coordinating structures of participatory budgeting (PB) and the associative profile of civil society representatives in four Brazilian experiences. Our focus is to take into consideration the location of the coordination office of PB within the municipal government, the characteristics of the PB Council and the party affiliation of civil society councilors. The results show that the higher political status of PB at local government the more the council will be fought over and occupied by representatives affiliated to the incumbent political party. That is to say, a conflict occurs where the most organized groups channel their strategies to occupy the political space towards the PB.