The present essay is involved in the construction of the participation of civil society organized in health as a citizenship exercise and the place of Municipal Health Council (MHC) in this participation process. The study has as objective to analyze the institutional pattern of the MHC of Viçosa, Minas Gerais State, approaching the structure and operation dynamics, composition rules and competences. It is related to the observational study of traverse stamp, where individual interviews with the counselors of health, non participative direct observation of meetings of the MHC and documents were used as instrument of analysis. A number of 34 members (77,2%) of the respective council were interviewed. Among the results, it stands out that 44,2% of the interviewed said that the decisions taken in the MHC are not informed to the population and 35,3% does not transfer the information of the proposals and discussions taken in the MHC for discussion and deliberation for their pairs. For the documental analysis, it was verified that the composition of the MHC of Viçosa is not in agreement with the foreseen distribution by the federal legislation. The results suggest the existence of problems related to the representation, limiting the social participation in the councils.
Social participation; Municipal Health Council; Social control; Brazilian Unified Health System
