CITIZEN PARTICIPATION IN THE PLANNING OF SHARES IN EMATER-RN

Abstract

The public services of technical assistance and rural extension in the country have been developed in a space where very distinct social groups, which go from agribusiness to traditional agricultural families, coexist. Having as theme the participation of agricultural families in the elaboration of actions of technical assistance and rural extension, this paper aims to analyze the participating decisory process of EMATER’S-RN 2005 planning, using as main theoretical reference Arnstein’s (1969) ladder of citizen participation. A field research, documental and bibliographical, of an exploratory kind with a qualitative approach was done, and the data, collected from different sources – interviews, non-participant observations and documents - were submitted to a content analysis of categorical kind (BARDIN, 1977). Results evidenced that the level of participation by the farmer in the institution’s planning is in an intermediary situation between symbolic and real participation. This continuous search of improving the participative channels is relevant since, besides institutionalization, it is believed that the improvement and continuity of the process of participative management depend on the relation, always tensioned and qualified, between the organized society and the State.