THE ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS IN SOCIAL CONTROL, PUBLIC TRANSPARENCY, AND CIVIL SOCIETY PARTICIPATION

Abstract

This article consists of a literature review on the role of civil society organizations in social control, public transparency, and civil society participation, which are considered interdependent dimensions of strengthening democratic accountability in Brazilian public management. The analytical approach stems from the institutional framework established by the Federal Constitution of 1988 and consolidated by the Fiscal Responsibility Law (Supplementary Law No. 101/2000), the Access to Information Law (Law No. 12,527/2011), the Regulatory Framework for Civil Society Organizations (Law No. 13,019/2014), and the Code of Rights of Users of Public Services (Law No. 13,460/2017). The reviewed literature highlights the plurality of CSOs' action mechanisms—such as social observatories, public policy management councils, ombudsman offices, participatory budgeting, and network coordination with internal and external control bodies—which tend to operate in a combined manner, complementing institutional oversight. The expansion of Social Observatories confirms the potential capillarity of citizen organization. However, the studies converge in pointing out a structural mismatch between normative formalism and the actual practice of social control: citizens recognize the importance of transparency, but remain passive regarding oversight. This is reflected in the low number of well-founded requests based on the Access to Information Law and in the usability barriers of public portals, which are aggravated by structural, cultural, financial, and communicative obstacles. In this scenario, CSOs assume the dual role of translators of the governmental information flow and qualified users of transparency portals, feeding formal control bodies. Convergent recommendations in the literature point toward continuous citizenship education, qualified active and passive transparency, improvements in the architecture of public portals, and network coordination with control bodies. In summary, the realization of social control requires the combination of state apparatus decentralization and organized social mobilization around shared objectives.