Synergizing civil society: state-civil society regimes in Porto Alegre, Brazil

In this paper I discuss the impact of participatory reforms to municipal governance on local civil society in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Carried out by administrators of the Worker's Party (PT), these reforms have created a variety of empowered participatory fora on municipal policy. In contrast to a previous period of "tutelage" in which neighborhood associations vacillated between acquiescence and conflict with municipal government, these reforms have fostered new institutions in civil society, a greater interconnectedness between local organizations, and a 'scaling up' of activism away from solely neighborhood to city-wide concerns. To properly consider this impact I propose a 'relational' framework that considers the role of state-civil society relationships in creating an environment more or less conducive to civic involvement.