Democracia digital e participação cidadã : o sistema estadual de participação popular e cidadã da gestão do governo de Tarso Genro/RS (2011-2014).

Abstract

Ever since the digital revolution, Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) have been gradually included in public management, aiming to increase its efficiency and effectiveness, the expansion of the supply of goods and services to the population through virtual media and, more recently, the participatory mechanisms. In this sense, there is an enthusiastic and deterministic perspective regarding the democratizing potential of the ICT, and its capacity to broaden participatory processes, aiming for the qualification of democracy. The critical approach, on the other hand, understands that technology, and consequently the ICT, are not autonomous to society, but rather means, whose results depend on the use that citizens make of these technologies and on aspects such as social and digital inclusion. ICTs, therefore, are embedded in a dynamic of interrelation with the phenomena of life's world. In the state of Rio Grande do Sul, the government of Tarso Genro, in the period from 2011 to 2014, was marked by a participatory management, with emphasis on the use of ICT as a tool to deepen democracy through mechanisms that aimed to enable citizen participation. Thus, this thesis aims to understand and identify how the process of adopting the ICT in the construction of digital democracy in Tarso Genro’s management, taking the experience of the State System of Popular and Citizen Participation – Sisparci, and inside of it, the Digital Office (GD) and the Popular Consultation (CP), based on the perception of governmental actors and civil society organizations in these experiences. To do so, it bases itself on a bibliographical review of the democratic theories, the deterministic and critical approaches to technologies, as well as the use of ICT and the Internet in the public sector in Brazil, and the advances and limits of participation in Rio Grande do Sul. The data used has documental origins and in 15 interviews conducted for this research, with a set of 14 subjects, among them mostly members of the government, and also of civil society. Secondary data collected alongside the Transparency Portal and the Secretariat of Planning, Governance and Management – SPGG of the state is also used. Data analysis and perception of the actors indicates a pioneering in Tarso Genro's government relative to the testing of innovative practices with respect to mechanisms for citizen participation through the use of ICT and the internet. By including in the public agenda the expansion of these processes, this government promoted, during that period, changes in citizen participation practices, incorporating these processes in public state administration. It was identified from RS’ case that the use of the ICT and the Internet in participatory processes guarantees neither its effectiveness, nor the consolidation of these processes, in spite of facilitating access to public goods and services and citizen participation. The data shows that there is a restricted practice of citizen participation. It is evident, therefore, that only part, rather than the majority, of the population is engaged. It is also added that the commitment to maintain these processes is not perceptible. The triangulation of data indicates that in addition to the development of government strategies that seek to expand the participation process, it is necessary to develop initiatives that promote civic education.