This article investigates the political influence in institutions of enlarged participation. Having as empirical referential the social policies management councils in Curitiba, both theoretical and methodological issues are approached in relation to the concept of power/influence, seeking to identify the most appropriate analytical model for studying the political influence within such institutions. After having considered two of the main approaches (decisional and positional) commonly used in studying the practice of political power, we have concluded that each one alone proves to be unable to explain the distribution of political influence within the councils. The authors suggest the elaboration of a model capable of integrating the virtues of each one of the perspectives and, at the same time, incorporating variables of contextual nature.
Political participation; Political influence; Management councils