This paper proposes an analytical and empirical shift to identify the meanings that state actors mobilize regarding social participation. It innovates by focusing on the perceptions of bureaucrats about participatory institutions and by proposing the dialogue between two sets of literature: the approaches of Participatory Institutions (PI) and of the Sociology of Public Action (SPA). From the former, it takes up the debate on the meanings of participation, while from the latter it takes on an understanding of bureaucrats as […]