Efforts in Brazil to strengthen its democracy, from the beginning of the democratization process, have generated administrative decentralization and a defense of the expanded participation of citizens in the political decision-making and oversight of government actions and their public managers. Such efforts have been emphasized as a way to reverse the process of pressing social disintegration, reflected in the decrease of state functions irresponsible from the reformism of the 1990s. We argue here that the adoption of such a perspective has fostered creativity associative wanted civil society as some of its advocates, however, has limited the possibilities of articulating a common promotion of popular participation.