Democratization or asymmetry of representation: notes on state councils for food and nutrition safety

Councils are a key institutional innovation within the Brazilian post-1988 constitutional framework. They are structured so as to include representatives of civil society and the State within the same arena. The aim of this article is to engage in critical discussion on the representation of social organizations within these arenas. Our hypothesis suggests that representatives often distance themselves so much from their social base that they actually become a sort of elite. Thus, we raise the issue of whether the formal democratic structure and mechanisms that these councils incorporate are enough to guarantee a diversity of representatives and representational practices, or if, through the social and political resources that representatives hold, gaps between constituents demands and representatives actions re-emerge, notwithstanding the normative precepts of equality that the councils themselves advocate. Adapted from the source document.