Why do political parties promote participatory governance? The Brazilian Workers’ Party case

This article presents the motivations incumbent parties may have to create and promote participatory governance innovations. For that I analyze the case of the Brazilian Workers’ Party (PT – Partido dos Trabalhadores). I argue that the promotion of participatory governance by PT is a combination of ideological and pragmatic interests. Ideologically, PT is founded by grassroots social movements with a strong commitment to participation and redistributive policies. On the pragmatic side, the multiplication of State–Society interaction channels strengths the party’s social governability, that is civil society organizations support, creating pressure and mobilization towards the parliament to approve the party’s political agenda. This relationship may be mutually beneficial to civil society as long as there are similar policy preferences. The analysis is based on in-depth process tracing, which compares PT’s administrations in two different government levels: the State of Rio Grande do Sul and the Brazilian Federal Government.