Representação e deliberação no processo decisório do Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Sudeste de Minas Gerais

Abstract

This dissertation is the result of research carried out at the Superior Council of the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of the Southeast of Minas Gerais from two dimensions proposed by Dahl (2005). The objective of this study is to determine if the decision-making arrangement of the institution is endowed with inclusiveness and public contestation, constituting a polyarchy. The first stage involved the revision of the literature on the emergence of democracy, the concept of polyarchy and the main democratic theories, especially the liberal, representative, participative and deliberative aspects. The methodological approach of the research is qualitative, with the gathering of documentary data, observation and semi-structured interviews. The technique used in examining the information collected was content analysis. The investigation of the decision making arrangement of the organization was structured in two analytical axes in order to verify the process of democratization in the institution. This method allowed to approach with more exact and articulated way the theoretical and practical issues raised by the phenomenon under analysis. In the first axis (x), the main principles of liberal-representative democratic theory were related, and in the second axis (y), the essential premises of participatory-deliberative democracy were listed. After conducting a theoretical investigation on the main classical and contemporary references that deal with the question of political participation in democratic theory and correlating them with the information gathered from the empirical analysis, it was possible to conclude that the Superior Council of the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology Southeast of Minas Gerais alternates between inclusive hegemony and polyarchy (imperfect, not absolute). Among the challenges encountered in terms of democratic expansion that affect the quality of participation are the low integration of the academic community that restricts the interactivity between representatives and represented and impacts on the responsiveness of the members. The absence of formal processes capable of enabling preliminary interactions, the passivity of some segments and the intransigence of some counselors when the themes of the agenda touch the interests of functional categories are the main factors that restrict the effective public contestation within the Superior Council interfering in the quality of decisions.