Participatory Budgeting
This process is used in a number of Brazilian cities, but the original and still considered most rigorous example is in the city of Porto Alegre (1.3 million). The city’s sixteen administrative units have Regional Plenary Assemblies that meet twice yearly to discuss and settle budgetary issues. Any inhabitant of the city may attend the assemblies, but only residents of the region may vote. At the first meeting, held in March, delegates are elected from those present to participate in more or less weekly meetings over the next three months to work out the region’s spending priorities for the coming year. The meetings are held in neighbourhoods throughout the region. At the end of this phase, the delegates report back to the second plenary, where proposals are debated and voted upon and two delegates are elected to represent the region in a city-side body called the Participatory Budgeting Council, which meets over the following five months to formulate a city budget out of the regional agendas. The Mayor can accept the budget or remand it for revisions, but the Council can over-ride the Mayor’s veto with a two-third-majority vote endorsing the pre-remanded version.
Readings:
Boaventura de Sousa Santos, "Participatory Budgeting in Porto Alegre: Toward a Redistributive Democracy," online at http://www.archonfung.net/papers/santos.html.
Gianpaolo Baiocchi, "Participation, Activism, and Politics: The Porto Alegre Experiment and Deliberative Democratic Theory," online at http://www.archonfung.net/papers/Baiocchi.pdf
Leonardo Avritzer, “Public Deliberation at the Local Level: Participatory Budgeting in Brazil," online at http://www.archonfung.net/papers/avritzer.pdf.
Wampler, Brian, "Expanding accountability through participatory institutions: Mayors, citizens, and budgeting in three Brazilian municipalities," Latin American Politics and Society, 46(2) Summer 2004, 73-99
Using the cases of Brazil’s innovative participatory budgeting practices, focusing on three municipalities – São Paulo, Recife and Porto Alegre – the author examines the impact of these practices on conditions of accountability. While the 1988 Brazilian Constitution initiated much devolution of power from the federal to state and local governments, at the local level the mayor remained extremely powerful. The interaction of Brazil’s new participatory culture, embodied in such institutions as participatory budgeting, and these powerful mayors, create complex condition for accountability. The author finds that while the participatory budgeting process can, and has, significantly improved accountability in some jurisdictions, in others such potential benefits have been subverted by overly close relationships between some civil society organizations with the local mayor, and by a perceived diminishing of accountability on the part of municipal council. The author concludes that the potential pay-offs in increased accountability are large, but achieving those benefits is complex and demanding.
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