Consultative participation in Brazil: the case of the Sao Paulo Municipal Advisory Board

This article analyzed the Sao Paulo Municipal Advisory Board, an innovative channel of communication between civil society and the local government's executive branch. This exploratory research is based on an intrinsic case study, aiming to understand the operation of this advisory board and how it relates to other participatory instances in Brazil. The study adopted semi-structured interviews with members of the advisory board and representatives of the local government, participant observation of meetings of the management's board, and analysis of official documents. Data were analyzed based on the theory of deliberative democracy and studies on participatory bodies. The results indicate that the Sao Paulo Municipal Advisory Board is partially aligned with the deliberative democracy, and strongly connected to the federal and state-level Economic and Social Development Advisory Boards. Due to the specificities of these instances, we suggest the creation of a new category in the literature on institutional participation - "Governmental Advisory Board."