Public Hearings on the Annual Budget Law (LOA) at the City Council of Maceió: A Critical Assessment of Democratic Effectiveness (2020–2024)

AVALIAÇÃO CRÍTICA DA EFETIVIDADE DEMOCRÁTICA (2020-2024)

Abstract

This study examines the democratic effectiveness of public hearings promoted by the City Council of Maceió related to the Annual Budget Law (LOA) during the 2020–2024 legislature. The research focuses exclusively on hearings held to discuss the planning, approval, and implementation of the LOA, which is an essential instrument for defining the municipality’s public policies and budget priorities. The theoretical framework is based on Jürgen Habermas’s deliberative perspective, which postulates democratic legitimacy derived from discursive processes marked by inclusive and egalitarian participation. This perspective is complemented by Leonardo Avritzer’s critical institutionalist approach, which emphasizes the relevance of participatory institutions in the Brazilian context to achieve substantive democratic practices, and by Boaventura de Sousa Santos, who advocates forms of democracy that go beyond mere representation to reach deeper and more concrete levels of popular participation. These authors establish a coherent theoretical dialogue, reinforcing the thesis that genuine participatory processes are central to strengthening democracy at the municipal level. The central hypothesis of this investigation is that the public hearings on the LOA in Maceió present low democratic effectiveness, especially due to structural deficiencies in the process of receiving and effectively incorporating demands presented by the population. A secondary hypothesis proposes that improvements in the institutional and methodological design of the hearings could considerably enhance their democratic potential. Methodologically, a quantitative approach is adopted based on detailed document analysis, focusing on the official minutes and recorded videos of the hearings held between 2020 and 2024. Specifically, the following aspects are analyzed: (1) the social representativeness and diversity of the participants; (2) the discursive quality, measured by the available speaking time and the interaction between councilors, experts, and citizens; (3) the systematic identification of popular demands in the proposals presented and their effective incorporation into the final approved version of the LOA; and (4) the degree of transparency and efficiency of the feedback given to citizens after the hearings. The objective criteria used to evaluate democratic effectiveness include: representativeness and social diversity of the participants; concrete incidence of popular proposals in the final legislative decisions; transparency in the processing and communication of decisions; and the formal existence of institutional feedback to citizens. The innovation of this study lies in proposing an institutional model for public hearings on the municipal budget, with mandatory mechanisms for transparent follow-up of popular suggestions and a formalized platform for feedback and accountability to citizens, creating a continuous and structured process of democratic participation. The study concludes with empirically grounded practical recommendations aimed at improving the design and functioning of public budget hearings, offering a contribution not only theoretical but above all applied, aimed at real democratic improvement in the City Council of Maceió and similar contexts.