A construção da cidadania por meio da educação fiscal: uma análise dos observatórios sociais

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the phenomenon of social observatories in Brazil as a result of the diffusion of tax education and as a way to contribute to the implementation of supportive citizenship in the Country. The study starts on the presupposition that citizenship, in modern times, cannot be summarized as the enjoyment of rights, but it must cover the performance of obligations based on solidary attitudes assumed by individuals. To do so, we must revert quite rooted characteristics in Brazilian society, like patrimonialism and the lack of public spirit. In this context, we believe in the potential of education as a transformative instrument, since specific characteristics are provided, such as the concern about the inclusion of the student in the complex reality that surrounds him and also the concern about the development of his critical sense. We emphasized, particularly, tax education as an important trend of citizen education, because it`s responsible for empowering citizens to control public spending, which is based on the democratic principle, on popular sovereignty and on the participative citizenship. For the case study of civil associations, we elected up the social observatories. Specifically about five of them, we investigated factors such as the characteristics of their creation, their composition, the activities developed by them and the difficulties they went through. We concluded that social observatories, even with failures and difficulties, may contribute to the achievement of supportive citizenship since they constitute an initiative capable of facing obstacles in Brazilian society. This is a descriptive and an explanatory research and, as for data collection, a bibliographic, a documental and a field research.