Citizen Participation and Municipality Size: Findings in Light of Demonstrations between 2015 and 2017

Abstract Internet democratization and the natural outspread of news reports and information in social media have been changing citizen’s participation at public sphere. The complexity of the current scenario takes to reflections about how participation practices have been taking place in municipalities. Thus, the aim of the present study is to assess what demonstrations show about municipality size and citizen participation within the Brazilian context. A quantitative-qualitative research schedule was developed in order to do so. The qualitative stage of it aimed at facing information gotten from effective participation in demonstrations carried out in municipalities. Results have shown that structural discrepancies among municipalities translate differences seen in citizen participation. If one takes into account what would be the best municipality size for the democratic exercise, the herein analyzed contextual aspects point toward the coexistence of fruitful environments to participation either in small- or large-sized municipalities, although there is the trend of concrete participation in larger municipalities.

摘要：互联网的民主化浪潮，以及新闻报道与各类信息在社交媒体中的自然扩散，正深刻改变公民在公共领域（public sphere）的参与模式。当前这一复杂的现实图景，引发了学界对公民参与实践如何在各市镇（municipalities）中开展的反思。鉴于此，本研究旨在评估巴西语境下，各类示威活动所揭示的市镇规模与公民参与之间的关联。为此，本研究设计了定量与定性相结合的研究方案。其中，定性研究阶段旨在收集并分析从各市镇举办的示威活动中获取的公民有效参与相关信息。研究结果显示，市镇之间的结构性差异，直接映射出公民参与层面的分化。若以适配民主实践的最优市镇规模为参照，本研究所分析的语境性因素表明，无论是小型还是大型市镇，均存在利于公民参与的优质环境；尽管大型市镇的实际参与呈现出更为显著的趋势。