In Brazil today most of the political activity of civil society sectors takes place embedded in relationships with the state, at its various levels and sectors. Since the 1970s, a signifi cant part of civil society has been deeply involved in the struggles for the reestablishment of democracy and also for its deepening and the extension of citizenship in the country. As Brazilian political elites and institutions, organized through liberal representative democracy, have been historically unable or unwilling to confront the striking levels of inequality and exclusion, civil society participation has been seen as a political tool to address these problems. Accordingly, that participation has been predominantly defi ned by a large part of its defenders as aiming at sharing decision-making power with respect to public policies related to inequality and exclusion. Sustained by defenders of participatory democracy, this defi nition translated a concern with the quality of representation, given the enormous distance between political society and the great mass of Brazil’s population.