This article discusses the process of institutionalization of civil society participation in the City House of São Paulo (CHSP) in budget public hearings from 1990 to 2010 under the gaze of institutionalism in organization theory, stressing microfoundations and cognitive and cultural explanations. Autopoietic systems are identified: legislative power, executive power, civil society and bureaucracy of CHSP and regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive variables in the process. We conclude that, despite institutionalized, the participation in the CHSP encounters normative and cultural-cognitive limitations that shape participation in accordance with existing standards of conduct in the interaction between parliament members and society, sedimenting budgetary clientelism.
participation; institutionalization; civil society; budget; autopoietic system
