Study about the National Council of Sports (Conselho Nacional do Esporte -CNE) in Brazil as the body responsible for democratic control of Brazilian sports policy. This thesis aimed to analyze if the CNE during Lula and Dilma governments (2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014) was in fact a space for participation and for democratic control and its contribution for the National Sports Policy and for the universalization of the right to sport in Brazil. Based on the historical and dialectical materialism, this research has a quantitative and qualitative nature; it is also defined as a field research in the format of a historical-organizational case study, combined with bibliographical and documentary research. It is inserted in the debate on participatory democracy, which focuses on social participation in institutionalized spaces of democratic control, in which the relationship between the state and the civil society becomes central. The documentary research had the following as main sources: Law No. 10,672/2003 and Decree No. 7,984/2013, in addition to the Internal Rules of the CNE, all 41 Resolutions adopted by the Council, the 42 Ordinances issued by the Sports Ministry for the CNE, as well as the Minutes of 25 ordinary meetings and 1 extraordinary meeting. A semi-structured interview was carried out with sixteen (16) members of the CNE as well as with its Executive Secretary.Data were analyzed based on the content analysis techniques, considering the dimensions of representation, institutionalization and democratization in the CNE, comprising the following categories: policy design; quality of representation; decision power; government political will and democratic control. The analyses showed that the government has hegemony within the CNE's structure; its representatives are mostly men who have a profile of high educational standards, with predominant training in Physical Education and Administration; however, most of them act as entrepreneurs or public managers without any participation in social movements or trade unions, also having low adherence to party affiliation. Regarding the representation of civil society, it was found that the CNE is a diverse board, moderately plural, but not built upon parity. As for its institutionalization process, it was found that it is below the average in the institutionalization index of national councils, having small internal distribution of power in the aspect of the decision-making process. Moreover, considering the period of investigation, it did not fulfill even half of its legal tasks; regarding the issues resolved in deliberative meetings, it showed limited results, which were primarily towards the dimension of high performance in sports. Therefore, it is concluded that the Council had a role of legitimating policies that interested the executive power, by conceiving sports policies associated with marketization, which did not point to the universality of sports as a social right, as stated in the Federal Constitution of 1988, bu...