Public participation in water management emerged out of the French experience and was structured on the basis of the basin committees. However, participation in the French system has evolved during the last 40 years and presents today a set of differences in participation strategy, result of a long process of active involvement of the society, in the evaluation and reformulation of management policies. Other countries followed the French principles in public participation but did not accommodate this evolution. However, in these countries, responses to the conflicts allowed for reinterpretation of the French model and its appropriation became contextualized with the achievement of maturity of their systems. In European countries the European Union legislation - Water Framework Directive - imprints a new strength to the participative component challenging State-Members that, despite a few exceptions, have not been able to fully respond to it. This work allows for the reflection about strategies of participation adopted by public policies in water management in Southern countries - Brazil and Mozambique and in the North - France and Portugal, revealing differences between active and passive processes in the improvement of its management systems