Abstract
This article develops an approach about participation based on materialism, and establishes its differences — in comparison to the dominant lines of thought — when it comes to explaining the difficulties to obtain effective political participation in Brazil. On one hand, culturalism points to a lack of formal or cultural preparation to participate. On the other hand is the notion that neoliberalism is the limiting factor. The differentiation of the approaches proposes the study of the real conditions of possibility for participation, given by the format of the policies, starting by analyzing the process of objectivation of capitalism in Brazil, considering the particularity of such format discussing the colonial way. The basic understanding is that the participation in the atrophic capitalism is a particular form of participacionism because of the process of incipient transformations and the excluding modernizations which block the popular participation and secure the interests of dominant classes.
Keywords:
participation; participacionism; atrophic capital; particularity; Brazil