[Popular participation in Ipatinga (MG, Brazil): achievements and challenges of the health sector]. / A participação popular em Ipatinga (MG, Brasil): conquistas e desafios do setor de saúde.

Since the SUS implementation in the 90's, it has been possible to observe the change from a political, administrative, and financially centered system to a scene where thousands of agents started to constitute fundamental citizens in the field of health. The objective of this work is to understand how these different actors have absorbed and guaranteed the community the right to participate in the decision of public health policies. This research also tries to investigate the democratic speech and the participative practice implemented by the Worker's Party (PT) in the city of Ipatinga (MG, Brazil). This work uses as theoretical referential the Communicative Action Theory of Habermas and, from this theory, a model of democracy which is understood as the institutionalization of the discursive processes of opinion and will formation. The results obtained indicate that there is an important democratic history in the city, but with indications, however, of retrocessions in the participative practices of the health sector, as the reproduction of traditional practices of government is verified.