Deliberative effectiveness in municipal sanitation and health councils: a study in Belo Horizonte-MG and in Belém-PA.

Deliberation in municipal councils of sanitation and health is the object of this study. Deliberation is understood as decision making and argumentative process, from the formulations of Rousseau, Habermas and Cohen. The proposed objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of the deliberative action of the councils of Belo Horizonte (MG) and Belém (PA). The evaluation included the study of variables defining the degree of institutionalization of the councils and revealing the dynamics of the deliberative process developed in them. The internal regulations of each council and the minutes and resolutions produced by them during the 2012-2014 triennium were consulted. The results showed that the four councils, in the period and according to the defined criteria of analysis, are far from the degree of deliberative effectiveness desired, considering the purposes of the social control in sanitation and in health, arranged by the specific legislation of each area. Even with broader experience, considering their years of participatory pedagogical exercise, health councils were no more effective than neophyte sanitation councils.