Resumen

RESTREPO, Darío I. Social Participation: The State - Civilian society relationship. Rev. salud pública [online]. 2001, vol.3, n.3, pp.245-267. ISSN 0124-0064.

Civic participation refers to the possibilities that citizens, communities and different social groups have to influence public policies, not necessarily through representative democracy, political parties, “favor-based” political practices or unions. Civic participation may be applied to economical, administrative and political issues. The “favor-based” political system and technocracy dominate the universe of state's offer in participation as well as in decision making, planning and budget allocation in territorial entities and public companies. Strategic control to the public power is a renewed yet distant expectation. In order to achieve an effective social participation capable of helping in the democratization of the State and the society, several principles are proposed: the public nature of all governmental acts; stimulation of the propositional capacity of society on public policies without hindering their autonomy from the State; favoring underrepresented social groups; strengthening and construction of social and political actors; establishment of the participation right and practice thus changing its randomized and manipulated nature; creation of social and communitarian networks systematizing participation experiences and; strengthening people's capacity to determine the main defining variables of the political, administrative and economical power.

Palabras clave : Representative and participative democracy; consultation; concentration; strategic control.

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