LOCAL LEGISLATIVE ACCOUNTABILITY BEFORE AND AFTER THE LAW ON ACCESS TO INFORMATION

Abstract

The study aimed to investigate the accountability done by the local legislative, in electronic portals, before and after the Law on Access to Information came into force. 75 portals of local legislatures of cities the State of Santa Catarina with population over 10,000 inhabitants were visited. The research is exploratory, conducted through a documentary study with a qualitative approach. The data collection instrument was the observation protocol drawn from the analysis model. With the protocol were identified occurrences of the analysis model indicators, and transcribed the comments deemed pertinent to the object of study. Data were collected in two phases. The first access to the portals occurred on the 2nd, 3rd and 4^th of February 2011. The second access took place on the 29th and 30^th of July 2012, after the Law on Access to Public Information came into force on May 16^th of 2012. The "after" analysis seems to reinforce the zero or low capacity of accountability in the electronic portals, identified "before", without major breakthroughs, as many portals maintained the same situation. It is believed that the formalism is used to grasp the meaning of the portals, an instrument imported from more developed realities, but that actually does not find support in the Brazilian social practices historically constructed.