This article aims to present the changes in the trajectory of participatory ideals. Based on documentary research and bibliographical review, the text points out how, in Brazil, some views on participatory democracy “won” and others “lost force”. If in the 1970s there was a strong presence of conceptions that affirmed the importance of using participatory space as a form of organization of society (in unions, popular movements and in the party itself) and education for citizenship, what we call here as “participation as emancipation”, over time this vision has lost strength. Political views began to enter into the views of participation as a way to support governments on the one hand and to oversee the state, on the other, which we refer to here as “participation as deliberation”. Already during the PT government, a vision of participation “as a listener” was consolidated.
Participatory democracy; Participation; Participatory institutions