Democratic innovations and traditional representation in Parliament: A case study involving tensions and accommodations

This paper concerns the democratic issue, through the study of the interlocution experience with society over participatory institutional innovations performed by the Legislative Assembly of Minas Gerais (Brazil) since the 1990s. It verified the specificities of such practices, emphasizing the capacity for democratic deepening demonstrated by the actions taken, having as its core the effectiveness of social inclusion and empowerment achieved. The investigation has as epistemological basis the philosophical neopragmatism associated with the systemic constructivism developed by Niklas Luhmann and with critical sociology. It also follow the paths of democratic theory, joining perspectives that share the ambition to go beyond the limits found in the theoretical approach linked with liberal tradition, whether restrictive in nature or in the limits of pluralism. This was apprehended within the systems theory, under whose interpretive basis was developed an understanding of the phenomenon researched. Over almost thirty years, there was verified significant investment by the Legislative Assembly in the adoption of participatory practices, inside an internal context of bureaucratic modernization and changes in the body of representatives, and an external context of redemocratization and constitutionalization in Brazil. It gradually established a set of modalities for society's participation in the activities proposed by the parliament in question, which are characterized by a diversity of formulas, audiences and results. Also, it was observed the expenditure of enough resources for these actions, and that the products obtained were of little value when compared to the achievable totals, especially regarding the inclusion of popular proposals in government planning, allocation of resources in the public budget, normative production, definition of public policies and inspection interventions and controls on the public sector. Furthermore, despite the number of events held and dialogue channels made available, it was noted that the scope of participation was restricted to information, comments, debates, suggestions and proposals, with the decision-making process remaining concentrated in the hands of the representation. Besides, it was verified that although the deputies did not oppose the introduction of participatory practices in the ALMG, their standard attitude towards them was that of indifference added to the reservation of their decision-making powers. Along with the modernizing processes assimilated by the Legislative House, it was also noticed that parliamentary behavior remained mostly bounded to brazilian politics traditions, such as clientelism and patronage, which have been reinforced by a macrostructural constitutional framework of the political system, especially the separation of powers and the personalist electoral system. Overtime, a process of growth of participatory activities in the Legislative of Minas Gerais was simultaneously identified with a rearrangement of positions within that entity, safeguarding representatives' electoral interests. Among the most visible results, there is the restriction of participation by keeping decisions under parliamentary control, eventually configuring tokenism. Thus, it was noticed that the current situation of the investigated experience suffers from unsolvable ambiguities, tending to maintain a reciprocally complacent balance between participatory spaces and perks of representation.