Councils and equality principle between government and civil society in Brazil

This paper analyzes the functioning of the equality principle between state and civil society in national councils of public policies, an important constitutional proposition appointed in the literature for its full success. The research was performed using the quantitative method, so that was collected in the councils official websites the number of seats held by representatives of civil society and government on the councils, i.e., how many members can be elected for representing their interests in these spaces. These two categories were defined according to the division of representation under the Constitution and bylaws of most councils. If the number of members is equal in both groups, the equality principle is respected. With the information collected were calculated: the general sum of representatives in each category of analysis, the general sum of members on the councils, the mean and standard deviation of total members. Such processing of the data allowed us to assess the implementation of the principle of parity in the national councils, leading to the conclusion that most council do not adopt the equality principle. It is important to remember that this research does not take into account the daily discussion of national councils, the way of choosing its members (election, appointment, etc.) or what each character takes, consultative, deliberative, or both. To address these issues would require more extensive research than that proposed in this paper. This research aimed to draw attention only to the number of seats reserved for members in the councils of government and civil society, which are institutionalized by official regulations and statutes. It is possible that the day-to-day in these spaces, the number of seats provided by institutional category is not respected.