Popular Participation and Social Policies in Latin America: Comparative Study of Brazil and Venezuela

Abstract

This article does a critical-dialectic work to analyze planning documents of the governments of Brazil and Venezuela, specifically social and democratic issues. Also, it makes an emphasis on popular participation, considering comparative bases that are able to interpretand explain the current situation of Latin America. The main objective of this analysisis to demonstrate that the implementation of social policy in the region, with all the inherent contradictions, can contribute to nourish a radical democratization of the institutional models of governmental and public policy, in a way that includes and increases political leadership, and collective participation of the whole working class.