State and Education: the challenge to enlarge citizenship

Abstract

The article approaches the theme of participation as a continuous processof democratization of educational administration. It is structured in threeparts. Initially it develops an analysis on the concept of participation inits diverse dimensions and possibilities. The second part focuses on aparticipatory public in Brazil with emphasis in the institutionalization of therelations between State and Civil Society. The third part concentrates on thepossibilities of constructing areas of institutional innovation. Experiencesindicate the existence/inexistence of a potential rupture of the existingdistance, which almost always presents a centralized power and mutantand heterogeneous social realities. This puts into evidence the limits ofexisting mechanisms; formal, vertical, corporative and clientelistic, whichwere built to allow/prevent the participation of citizens in public issues.The main challenge is to strengthen deliberative areas and modernize theinstruments of management and articulation. Thus, socio-institutionalengineering is required based on the premise to overcome of the existingsocio-institutional barriers and the necessary development within societyof public policies centered on the notion of general interest. This maybe promoted as the theme of citizenship and is considered very relevanttowards the effective institutionalization of participation of citizens in thedecision making processes of public interest within educational policies,and as well as those that are related to and intertwined with it.