This book is a doctoral thesis defended in 2006 at the PPGD-UFRGS under the supervision of Professor Almiro do Couto e Silva. The text deals with the direct participation of citizens in administrative life and its institutional condition, the principle of publicity.

Indeed, the right to information on the activities of public authorities is closely linked to the constitutional principles of popular sovereignty and democracy, as it brings citizens' rights to the fore and breaks with the tradition of state secrecy. The administration is now working to make the rights recognised in the Constitution and laws in general effective.

This is why the thesis affirms the close functional connection between publicity, participation and the administrative process, which can be understood as the result of a selection that serves as a premise for decisions by the Administration and acts as a structure for decision-making processes. These themes are currently the subject of study at the FMP's PPGD, in the Research Group Transparency, the fundamental right of access to information and participation in the management of public affairs, under the coordination of the author.

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