Democracia e participação social: um retrato das audiências públicas nas agências reguladoras federais

The main aim of this work is to verify the effectiveness of social participation in public hearings of federal regulatory agencies in Brazil. What is the level of acceptance of the contributions made by civil society when regulatory bodies are formulating and modifying rules? What is the relationship between the agencies’ treatment of public hearings and the effectiveness of social participation in these hearings? To achieve this goal, we studied public hearings held in 2014 in five regulatory agencies: ANAC, ANEEL, ANP, ANTT and ANATEL. We verified the acceptance of these contributions and how the agencies’ managers conducted their own public hearings. The results of this research show the existence of a relationship between the effectiveness of social participation and the way the processes are handled by regulatory agencies. We did explanatory research in order to analyze the legislation and theoretical content about social participation in the public administration and the social participation tool called public hearing. We have addressed social participation as the interaction between state and society in the context of institutional structures. We hope this research will provide a theoretical contribution demonstrating how important the effectiveness of social participation is in the public hearings of the federal regulatory agencies in Brazil, seeking thereby to reaffirm and enhance the democratic values inherent in social participation.O objetivo principal deste trabalho foi verificar a efetividade da participação social nas audiências públicas realizadas nas Agências Reguladoras Federais no Brasil. Qual é o nível de aceitação das contribuições apresentadas pela sociedade para elaboração ou modificação das normas editadas pelos órgãos reguladores? Qual a relação entre o tratamento dado pelas agências às suas audiências públicas e a efetividade da participação social alcançada nestes certames