Democracia participativa no Brasil: o papel das comunidades virtuais.

This study aims to identify the participation of Brazilian citizens in national political decisions through virtual communities such as Avaaz.org and how this process can impact the democracy model in Brazil. It is based on theoretical grounds about the emergence, strengthening and social engagement afforded by virtual communities and about the new models of democracy, with emphasis on the concept of participatory democracy. To conduct the analysis, the empirical object used was Avaaz.org - an organization that gathers signatures for online petitions around the world - in other to verify the behavior of citizens who participate in this community and the actions developed by them. The data was collected through an online structured questionnaire with more than 200 replies from Brazilian citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]