O controle social em cena: refletindo sobre a participação popular no contexto dos Conselhos de Saúde.

This study is aims to examine the experience of social control by the Health Council (HC) in a small city, through the theoretical framework of qualitative research. The research showed that the possibility of a participative management in the SUS is not consolidated as an effective exercise. We observed widespread ignorance about the legal and ideological foundations of social participation in health, which results in a strong influence of local managers on the dynamics and functioning of the HC, mainly in the determination of its members, thus preventing it from being a practical space for users to take ownership of the institutional form and the council's policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]