Participatory democracy in favor of the lobbyist
Posted: Thu Feb 20, 2025 4:56 am
In November of this year, the Legislative Assembly of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Alerj) became the first legislative body in the country to approve a law by popular initiative. The text was sanctioned by André Ceciliano, acting governor at the time, and president of Alerj, and on November 11, Law 9.897/22 was published in the Official Gazette.
The proposal was presented by three engineering students from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) through an app. The suggestion calls for the implementation of organic composters to reuse leftovers from school lunch production in public schools in the state education system.
According to the law, the organic compost generated by the new czech republic mobile database composters will initially be used by the school gardens and spaces themselves, and may be used in students' lunches and in complementary activities that have environmental education as a basis. In addition, the compost may also be distributed to students who have gardens at home or to the community surrounding the schools.
LegislAqui , the app used to suggest the proposal, was created with the aim of bringing citizens and parliamentarians together, giving good ideas from the population the chance to become laws. The proposals are submitted for popular evaluation by the tool itself, and when they reach the minimum number of 1,700 supporters, they are sent to the Committee on Internal Rules and External Proposals. From then on, with the positive approval of the Committee, the text is filed and follows the usual procedures for a bill. Through the app, it is also possible to quickly consult the main approved rules.
This is an example of how participatory democracy works in practice, that is, a government model where the population has the space to actively participate in political decision-making. Until the last years of the 20th century, society only had representation from those who had been elected, which did not provide conditions for social needs and problems to be discussed in a more comprehensive manner.
In Brazil, social participation in political decision-making is a right and is provided for in the Constitution. However, it is not an easy practice to implement. According to Federal Law 9,709, “a popular initiative consists of the presentation of a bill to the Chamber of Deputies, signed by at least one percent of the national electorate, distributed across at least five states, with no less than three tenths of a percent of the voters in each of them.”
The proposal was presented by three engineering students from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) through an app. The suggestion calls for the implementation of organic composters to reuse leftovers from school lunch production in public schools in the state education system.
According to the law, the organic compost generated by the new czech republic mobile database composters will initially be used by the school gardens and spaces themselves, and may be used in students' lunches and in complementary activities that have environmental education as a basis. In addition, the compost may also be distributed to students who have gardens at home or to the community surrounding the schools.
LegislAqui , the app used to suggest the proposal, was created with the aim of bringing citizens and parliamentarians together, giving good ideas from the population the chance to become laws. The proposals are submitted for popular evaluation by the tool itself, and when they reach the minimum number of 1,700 supporters, they are sent to the Committee on Internal Rules and External Proposals. From then on, with the positive approval of the Committee, the text is filed and follows the usual procedures for a bill. Through the app, it is also possible to quickly consult the main approved rules.
This is an example of how participatory democracy works in practice, that is, a government model where the population has the space to actively participate in political decision-making. Until the last years of the 20th century, society only had representation from those who had been elected, which did not provide conditions for social needs and problems to be discussed in a more comprehensive manner.
In Brazil, social participation in political decision-making is a right and is provided for in the Constitution. However, it is not an easy practice to implement. According to Federal Law 9,709, “a popular initiative consists of the presentation of a bill to the Chamber of Deputies, signed by at least one percent of the national electorate, distributed across at least five states, with no less than three tenths of a percent of the voters in each of them.”