Taking the budget to the streets: Street-level mobilization and inclusion in participatory budgeting

Abstract

ABSTRACT Community engagement is crucial to fulfilling the democratic potential of participatory budgeting. In the United States, the inclusion of racialized groups is imperative, given the country’s socioeconomic and political inequality. This article critically examines inclusion, focusing on one practice that I call streetlevel mobilization. This practice is a type of outreach aimed at making participation more accessible. Based on an ethnography of Participatory Budgeting in Chicago’s 49th Ward, I show how community representatives and public servants engaged in street-level mobilization by going out to the streets to invite residents to vote on the budget. This initiative increased the number of voters and created pop-up spaces for civic engagement. However, residents – even those who voted – expressed distrust in participatory budgeting, which reflected their experiences with the government as ineffective and exclusionary. I conclude that street-level mobilization could only offer a preliminary form of inclusion, not full inclusion in participatory budgeting.