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Copyright of Revista Brasileira de Ciencias Sociais is the property of Revista Brasileira de Ciencias Sociais and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista de Sociologia e Política is the property of Revista de Sociologia e Politica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article presents a critical dialogue with the literature about deliberative systems. It features an innovative proposal to investigate deliberative arenas in their connections with other parts of the political system and society. It adopts a method present in the field of Social Network Analysis (SNA) to conduct an empirical investigation of public policy councils of the city of Belo Horizonte. Our working hypothesis was that the main links among the councils would be informal mechanisms that promotes institutional interaction. The results show that government councillors are part of various councils simultaneously, so they play the role of links between the practices and institutions in which they work. It suggests the necessity to carry out future studies that would be able to show the connection of councils to the other parts of the broader deliberative system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]