Brazilian leader's success secret - democracy from ground up

RIBEIRAO PRETO, Brazil -- When the people of this prosperous city in sugar-cane country talk, the government listens.

Each year, City Hall asks its citizens how it should spend their tax money. A new highway? Better sewage? More kindergartens?

Today, as President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva prepares to take office in January, this city 185 miles northwest of Sao Paulo has become a showcase for the innovative style of governing of his leftist Workers Party -- a form of grass-roots democracy in a country with bitter memories of military dictatorship.

"Things couldn't be better," said Diva Palucci, retired hairdresser in the low-income neighborhood of Vila Tiberio.

"For years I was one of Brazil's millions of excluded," Palucci said, beating an omelet for her grandson in their sparsely-furnished two-room house. "But two years ago, City Hall started listening to us, and today we have a community center, a sewage system, two health centers and a police station."

Voice of the people

For Brazilians like Palucci, who is 57 and lived through the 1964-1985 dictatorship, simply being able to speak out has a special meaning.

"We would never dare open our mouths for fear of being arrested as subversives," Palucci said. "Our voices were never heard. Our needs were ignored.

"Now, for the first time, we can say that the voice of the people is truly the voice of God," she said, using an old Brazilian saying.

The change came with the election of Mayor Antonio Palocci, now one of Silva's top aides and head of his transition team. Palocci instituted the "participatory budget," a hallmark of the Workers Party, known by its Portuguese initials as PT.

Every year, residents meet in neighborhood councils to decide what they want included in the city budget, and elect delegates to bring the wish lists to city officials .

"It transforms representative democracies into participative democracies and leads to greater transparency and accountability in the handling of public funds," said Eduardo Cesar Marques, a political scientist at the University of Sao Paulo. "It's a form of government by consensus, a concept which (Silva) will introduce into the federal government in the form of a social pact."

On Thursday, Silva met with scores of business and labor leaders to start seeking consensus on reforming taxes, social security, land distribution and labor laws.

Over the years, the Workers Party, or PT, has earned a reputation for solid, clean administrations that combine social programs and balanced finances. The party controls nearly 200 cities and towns, including Sao Paulo, South America's largest, and has the most seats in Congress.

Improvements evident

While life hasn't changed dramatically in this city of 500,000, many residents note improvements.

"Crime has dropped, there are more paved roads, and neighborhood health centers stay open longer and tend to more people," said Luis Antonio Silva, who earns a living guarding cars parked in front of a bingo hall.

Acting Mayor Gilberto Maggioni, a wealthy businessman who took office when Palocci stepped down, said the business class no longer sees the party as an enemy.

"The PT has shed its radical past, and we have shed our traditional conservatism," he said. "The PT now accepts capitalist principles, and we no longer cling to our unbridled greed for profits. We understand the importance of social responsibility and the need to improve income distribution."

Among the city's social programs that Maggioni thinks could be adopted nationally is one aimed at getting poor youths into school and off the streets. It includes a circus school, music classes and crafts courses.

"The program is all about prevention," said program coordinator Fernando Luiz Dezerto. "We offer children an alternative to a life of crime and drugs."

Some 3,000 youths have either learned a trade or returned to school since the program began two years, Dezerto said, adding that 6,000 boys and girls between the ages of 8 and 14 are currently enrolled.

Aguinaldo Pereira, a 14-year-old who dreams of becoming a circus star, says he owes his life to the program.

"I was starting to smoke and sell pot and refused to go to school," he said. "Then my cousin told me about the program, and now I'm back in school and learning to become a professional acrobat."

Pereira said his cousin stayed in the streets, got involved with drugs and was shot dead in a gang fight.

"The program saved my life," he said