More Participation, Greater Responsiveness? National Public Policy Conferences and the Quality of Democracy in Brazil

Using the dimension of responsiveness as its object of investigation, the following article aims to determine whether democratic innovations can enhance the quality of democracy by increasing society's participation. By proposing an analytical model for the concept across three levels (impact on public policies, thematic congruence, and the multi-dimensional nature of participation), the article seeks to examine whether National Public Policy Conferences increased responsiveness in the Brazilian Legislature. To do so, it analyzes the reception in the Brazilian Legislature of the demands made in the National Conferences from 2003 to 2010, using descriptive analyses and logistic regression models to evaluate each of the three dimensions of the concept proposed.