Dilemas de uma Nova Agenda de Desenvolvimento: um olhar sobre a Política Ambiental Brasileira

This paper aims to discuss some of the new challenges faced by the State in promoting development, with emphasis on the challenges of social participation on the formulation and implementation of the Brazilian environmental policy. The methodology used is based on a review of the literature about the role of the state in development and about social participation, linking these themes with the management of environmental policy in Brazil, and focusing on the management boards created by this policy. We start from the observation that decision-making about development policies can no longer be concentrated in the hands of technical experts, as it happened with the development agendas of the twentieth century (developmentalism and neoliberalism). Such agendas have been unable to solve the economic, social and environmental crises that we live today, what brings to the foreground the need of a new development agenda, based on the principles of social participation and action of the State in building comprehensive and sustainable projects, articulating the multiple levels from local to global. Following this movement, the Brazilian environmental policy innovates by incorporating on its principles both the important role of the state in protecting the commons, and the necessity of creating participatory bodies. However, we cannot lose sight of the fact that the negotiation arenas are embedded in social spheres of symbolic, political and economic power, which may often favor the interests of influential groups.