PARTICIPATION AND SOCIAL CONTROL - THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE STATE HEALTH COUMCIL TO THE PUBLIC HEALTH POLICY OF ALAGOAS
democracy; social control; participation; public policy;
The object of analysis in this research is Social Control over Public Health Policies
through popular participation in the Conselho Estadual de Saúde de Alagoas - CES. It
is the instance of popular participation within the state's health policy. Instances of
participation appear as a new, distinct modality, differentiated from the traditional
model of political participation by party affiliation, union membership or electoral
attendance, it is part of the recent expansion of different forms of popular participation
in spaces and processes of discussion and formulation of public policies. The current
political context points, at least in the Federal sphere, to an unfavorable policy of
reducing popular participation by the extinction of several councils in the most varied
fields of public policy. In this context, the dissertation addresses the Conselho Estadual
de Saúde de Alagoas, an agency inserted in the health policy decentralization process,
seeking to understand its contribution to health policy, what is the relationship with the
government and its interaction with municipal departments. The hypothesis is that
there are difficulties encountered by counselors in their performance, and they are
related to technical-scientific language; asymmetrical relationship of power, resources
and access to information between incorporated actors, inequality of insertion and
demobilization. The question that we seek to answer is to what extent does the
Conselho Estadual de Saúde de Alagoas contribute to the Health Policy in the State
of Alagoas from the viewpoint of counselors who work in this body? Consequently, it
seeks to discuss how popular participation in the Council has been organized and
implemented; whether there is pressure or similar disincentive movement; whether the
data found point to the weakening of popular participation.