Introduction

In the past 20 years, forums with societal participation – such as participatory budgets and policy councils and conferences – have been introduced in Brazil in practically all areas of government (Dagnino, 2002; Santos and Avritzer, 2002). The policy councils are most conspicuous because they have become widespread across the country. They are present in municipalities and states of the federation, in addition to the 32 councils and two national commissions operating at the federal level (Brasil, 2010c). They promote the democratisation of the state and democratic governance at the various levels of government (Boschi, 1999; Dagnino, 2002; Santos and Avritzer, 2002; Côrtes, 2006). However, the institutional history of the respective policy area and the activities of sectoral policy communities endow them with other functions beyond those usually mentioned in the literature. The communities are formed on the basis of relationships between actors in existing networks in specific policy areas (Heclo, 1978). They involve a limited and relatively stable number of members who share beliefs, values and a certain view of what the policy outcomes should be (Rhodes, 1986). The analysis of this chapter focuses on the strategies used by a policy community that supported social assistance as a citizens’ right. In the late 2000s, as a result of those strategies, the Unified Social Assistance System (Sistema Único de Assistência Social; SUAS) was set up and the institutional roles of the National Council for Social Assistance (Conselho Nacional de Assistência Social; CNAS) were redefined.

In the 2000s, social assistance ceased to be an aggregate, relatively disorganised set of actions pursued by ‘charitable’ individuals or organisations – referred to as philanthropic –and become one of the most important policy areas in Brazil (Vaitsman et al, 2009). This is expressed in the fact that, between 1995 and 2009, it was the social area that expanded most, as indicated by federal social spending, which grew by 1,250%. Over that same period, as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), social spending rose from 0.08% in 1995 to 0.75% in 2004 and 1.08% in 2009 (IPEA, 2011).

The institutional framework that organises this area has its origins in Brazil's 1988 Constitution, which enshrined the right of the needy to assistance, and the principles of ‘political-administrative decentralisation’ and ‘public participation’ (Brasil, 1988, Art 204).