Participatory budgeting in Portugal: development prospects

Abstract

Introduction. The relevance of the study is caused by the spread of participatory budgeting practices in Russia and abroad. In 2017 the joint project ‘Development of initiative budgeting in the Russian Federation’ of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation and the World Bank has been launched. More than 50 Russian regions are involved in this project today. In March 2018 the need to develop citizen engagement was reflected in state program of the Russian Finance Ministry ‘Public Finance Management and Regulation of Financial Markets’. Since citizen participation in the budget process is still new, scholars and practitioners take interest in foreign experience, in particular, in the mechanisms used in European countries. Portugal is of a particular interest because the only nationwide practice of participatory budgeting is being implemented there.Materials and methods. The article is based on the comparative historical analysis and case-study method. Academic articles, thematic books and monographs, official websites of the state and local authorities of Portugal, specialized online-participation portals, reports of foreign experts at the Moscow Financial Forum 2018 were involved as sources. The author also relied on oral information received from the representatives of the Branding and Communication Department of Lisbon during an in-person meeting at the City Hall in June, 2018.Results. The historical and political context of the development of modern mechanisms of direct democracy in Portugal was identified. The nationwide program, national programs of school and youth participatory budgeting are analyzed. The specificity of the projects, the target audience and the results within each of the directions are described. Special attention is paid to the city of Lisbon, in which several crowdsourcing and participatory practices are implemented.Discussion and conclusions. The most original approaches that are interesting from the point of view of the procedures used for engaging citizens or specifics of local issues that are presented for discussion in the framework of participatory practices are identified.