This article explores two case studies of innovative practices in Brazil, acknowledged as having extended both popular participation in the decision making process and social rights - the Mental Health Project of Belo Horizonte breaks with the usual patterns of social relation based on prejudice, stigmatisation and exclusion, while the Participatory Budget of Porto Alegre breaks with patterns based on clientelisc and patrimonialistic practices in the definition of public expenditure. The aim is to understand to what point the development of inclusive policies and the relationship between active citizenship and local government are creating a political organizational formation at this level of government. In order to identify organizational changes in the case-studies, we can consider two formations: the traditional bureaucratic and the political organisational. In the case of Belo Horizonte it was identified the existence of many innovative practices inside the public administration, while in Porto Alegre this is not the predominant trend. Some of the historical and political differences in the origin of the two projects that could have influenced their outcomes are explored. Possible developments in the projects and changes (including societal ones) already produced that may induce further innovations in these public organizations are considered.
traditional bureaucratic formation; political organizational formation; mental health project of Belo Horizonte; participatory budget of Porto Alegre
