Políticas públicas e poder local: o conselho que fiscaliza os recursos do FUNDEF como mecanismos de controle social ou de poder clientelístico local?

Abstract

The Federal Constitution of 1988 represented an ideal of national redemocratization, opening new mediated spaces between State and civil society. The participation spaces are redefined, assuming an institutional face. In this moment, the "conselhos" - comittes constituted by members of civil society and state - emerge as a deliberative mechanism and promising to guarantee the social control. Civil society is, then, called to follow and intervene in the governamental actions such as education public policies. FUNDEF - Funding for Management and Development of Fundamental School and Teachership Valorization - is a deliberative governmental program. It is formed at national level as a response of the federal government to reforms in the field of educational public policies, valuing the process of educational financial resources decentralization, here specifically, the fundamental level. Its implementation regulates the creation of the Committee of evaluation and social control of financial fundings from FUNDEF - CACS (Conselho de Acompanhamento e Controle social dos recursos do FUNDEF), which is a social control mechanism to inspect the use and applicability of the resources in the society. In spite of the optimism often deposited on the social control mechanisms, due to the successful experiences, the limits of its participative potential, particularly CACS, is masked by the local political power, which has had on the clientelism the traditional way to conduct the public business. That is the case of Apodi municipality in the State of Rio Grande do Norte.