EDUCATIONG THROUGH PARTICIPATION, DEMOCRATIZING POWER: FREIREAN LEGACY IN PUBLIC ADMINISTATION

ABSTRACT: Popular education was an important force in the promotion of political reforms in Latin America in the last decades. This relation with the established public powers also originates a new relation with the state, thus this theme becoming presently an important practical-theoretical challenge. In this paper, we analyze the presence and legacy of Paulo Freire, a central reference in popular education, through empirical research in participatory budget (PB)and in the State System of Popular and Citizen Participation in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil as much in its formulation as in its effectivenessin social practices. The challenge is to understand, based on Freire´s assumptions, whether the observed experiences of participation have developed educational processes that promote the democratization of power. The results, as mentioned in the article, point to a series of factors that limit or inhibit the formative potential of the process.