Experiences Of Participatory Budgeting Research Articles

Participatory Budgeting in the EAEU Countries: Regulatory Framework and Practical Experience

Aim. The article defines the common features and specifics of the policy and practical experience of participatory budgeting in five post-Soviet member countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan).Tasks. The assessment of the current situation in these countries by international organizations is used.The effectiveness of the legal framework for open budget and participatory budgeting in each analyzed country is revealed. Participatory budgeting models specific to the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union are analyzed.Methods. First of all, we analyze the legislation and strategic documents, as well as the responsible bodies. Secondly, we provide an assessment of the practice of the EAEU countries by international organizations. Thirdly, we analyze the participatory budgeting models specific to the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union. Finally, we draw conclusions on similar problems in the EAEU countriesResults. It was revealed that the model of convergence democracy is more typical for Russia and Kazakhstan, multilateral participation is more or less specific for Kyrgyzstan and Armenia, participatory modernization is suitable for Belarus. Moreover, we see that there is no model of participatory budgeting that is specific to all EAEU countries.Conclusions. It can be concluded that the EAEU countries differ significantly in their participatory budgeting policies and practices, as well as in the ratings of international organizations. At the same time, a number of common points are noted.

The Practice of Participatory Budgeting during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Zimbabwe’s Local Government Sector: A Case of Chitungwiza Municipality

Abstract The experiences of participatory budgeting on the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic in Zimbabwe is widely discussed and acknowledged, yet there is paucity of literature of the interface between the two variables. This study therefore seeks to examine how Chitungwiza Municipality has interfaced with Residents and Stakeholders in the participatory budgeting processes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using informant interviews, non-participant observation, focus group discussions and analytical desk research, the paper argues that COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns has become the most recent threat to the practice of local democracy, particularly to those local government institutions that largely rely more on physical meetings as engaging platforms for participatory budgeting. The study prescribes policy recommendations to improve urban participatory governance within the context of COVID-19 pandemic situation.

ПРИВЛЕЧЕНИЕ ГРАЖДАН К ПРОЦЕССУ БЛАГОУСТРОЙСТВА ОБЩЕСТВЕННЫХ ТЕРРИТОРИЙ

Abstract. The study examines the experience of participatory budgeting in Russia. The application of this approach to the distribution of municipal budgetary funds allows us to take into account the needs of the population in the field of improvement of the urban environment. In regional projects of initiative budgeting, various tools are used to involve citizens, which can ensure their maximum participation in the process of allocating budget funds for initiatives. The use of digital technologies makes it possible to organise the process of participatory budgeting more understandable for the population and increase the efficiency of projects.

Saint Petersburg Experience of Participatory Budgeting

The article is devoted to summarizing the experience of implementing participatory budgeting practices
 in Saint Petersburg over a five-year period as well as the role and forms of citizen involvement in
 budget decision-making. An innovative form of public discussion, through the participation of citizens
 in the work of the budget commission, allowed one not only to attract a significant number of citizens
 to solve the problems of the metropolis, but also to increase the efficiency of budget fund spending.
 Special attention is paid to the testing of a new type of public participation in the development of
 the urban environment, namely participatory design, one of the effects of which is the possibility
 of attracting extra-budgetary sources of funding. The practice of participatory design is already in
 demand among potential investors and has shown good results in projects aimed at the development
 and improvement of newly built-up areas.
 School participatory budgeting practices were successful as well, in which high school students were
 asked to work out projects not only for the development of school infrastructure, but also that of
 the territory of Saint Petersburg’s districts. The experience gained allowed us to identify the main
 disadvantages and advantages of different practices, which will be taken into account when scaling
 them.

Da democracia participativa à desdemocratização na cidade: a experiência do Orçamento Participativo em Porto Alegre

Resumo Neste artigo se analisa o efeito da democracia na produção da cidade, tendo como caso a particular experiência de Porto Alegre pós-Constituição de 1988. Analisa-se a relação Estado-sociedade civil através das instituições participativas estabelecidas. A análise foca na experiência do Orçamento Participativo (OP), e tem-se, como método, a análise de discurso de documentos oficiais, legislação, atas; e a etnografia política, a partir da observação em rodada de assembleias do OP e do Conselho do OP. Estabelece-se um quadro da experiência democrática, a saber: 1) democracia-participativa (1989-2004); 2) liberal-governança (2005-2016); e 3) ultraliberal-mercado (2016-). Distintas formas de democracia que incidem nas dinâmicas de produção da cidade.

Foreign experience of participatory budgeting in public finance management

Foreign experience of participatory budgeting in public finance management

Nuevas miradas de los presupuestos participativos: los resultados de la participación desde la perspectiva política y técnica

Durante esta década la realización de experiencias de presupuestos participativos se ha visto consolidada en España, con un avance progresivo de las redes de investigación y la literatura al respecto, y con la necesidad creciente de contar con evaluaciones de tales experiencias que permitan progresar en el conocimiento de las mismas. El objetivo de este artículo es contribuir al análisis de los efectos que este mecanismo puede provocar en el personal técnico y político implicado. Consideramos que se trata de un enfoque necesario, ya que son muy escasos los estudios existentes al respecto, siendo más habituales las investigaciones sobre los impactos en la ciudadanía participante. En este trabajo se han analizado concretamente los indicadores para las dimensiones de resultados sobre políticas, resultados sobre relación con la ciudadanía y aprendizajes. Los efectos son analizados desde el punto de vista de la información cualitativa que se ha recogido a partir de la técnica de la entrevista semiestructurada.

Promovendo a participação democrática em um pequeno município através da extensão universitária como processo de inclusão e educação cidadã

O estudo tem por objetivo analisar uma experiência de Orçamento Participativo no Município de Currais Novos - RN. Em relação à metodologia foram aplicados questionários e etapas de rodas de conversas, reuniões plenárias locais em seis comunidades/bairros e uma Plenária Geral. Como resultado foi constatado que as carências apontadas pelas localidades participantes deste processo remetem a necessidades de investimentos por parte do Poder Público Municipal em ações básicas relativas a obras e serviços em infraestrutura, segurança, saúde e educação, que se colocam atualmente como as maiores mazelas do lócus municipal. Por fim, o estudo conclui que o reduzido montante de recursos destinados à ação, implicou em severa fragmentação do atendimento às necessidades da população e que o processo carece de suporte mais efetivo no que concerne ao acompanhamento e análise orçamentária das ações dele correntes.

Initiative budgeting: experience of Russian regions

Experience of participatory budgeting in municipalities of Russian regions is reviewed in the paper. Forms of participation of the population in decision-making, as well as in the selection, realization and co-financing of public projects have been investigated. The analysis of the practices made it possible to identify the features and prospects of the Russian model of initiative budgeting.

Participatory Budgeting: International and Russian Experience

The research is devoted to the modern enhancement of budget allocation effciency at the municipal level. Internationally, it is referred to as participatory budgeting. The subject of the research is the world and Russian experience of participatory budgeting and the effectiveness of such initiatives. The research objective is to determine the correlation between the international experience of public participation in the budget allocation and the program of initiative budgeting in the Russian Federation; based on this, to develop recommendations for improving the effciency of budget expenditures. The theoretical basis and the relationship between the concepts of “participatory budgeting” used to denote public participation abroad, and the “proactive budgeting” adopted in Russia have been considered. More than 30 international studies of participatory budgeting over the past 15 years have been analyzed. The aspects and effectiveness of the approaches have been highlighted. The best international and Russian experiences of participatory (initiative) budgeting, their characteristics and commitment to results have been identifed. As a result, the authors have presented a basic scheme to organize the participatory budgeting process, highlighting the stages, activities and criteria for the effectiveness of programs implemented within this approach. The initiative budgeting perspectives in Russia have been shown on the example of Yekaterinburg. Some recommendations have been given to enhance the implementation effciency. Among them are: infrastructural differences between the territories, expanding fnancial independence of municipalities in terms of initiative budgeting, building a system of representatives of local communities. It has been concluded that the initiative budgeting in the Russian Federation differs notably in its form from the international initiatives. The main difference is the requirement to the population and business to co-fnance projects. Some measures have been proposed to move gradually from the Russian participatory budgeting to the international standards, including: developing a methodology for project effciency evaluation, providing tax incentives, extensive use of information technology, and introducing the annual schedule of meetings and polls.

Outsourcing Participatory Democracy: Critical Reflections on the Participatory Budgeting Experiences in Taiwan

This article attempts to critically examine the experiences of participatory budgeting (PB) that have proliferated across Taiwan’s cities over the past three years. It is argued that PB in Taiwan remains an isolated initiative instead of an integral part of a comprehensive administrative reform. What makes Taiwan’s PB experiences theoretically interesting is that, in most cases outside the Taipei City, the tasks of promoting PB, designing the procedure of participation, and organizing and mobilizing lay citizens have been contracted out to NGOs or teams led by scholars.In light of the analytical framework of state power - political society - civil society, this article argues that (1) PB in Taiwan takes place in the absence of active support from civil society and confronts a political society that is hostile to or skeptical of PB; (2) the “outsourced” model of PB generates incentives for the commissioner to evade administrative and political responsibilities, and imposes structural constraints on the performance of the contractor regarding mobilization, organizing and deliberative quality; and (3) the future of PB in Taiwan depends on whether the current modus operandi of PB will give way to a more comprehensive institutional reform and whether a growing number of active citizens and civil society organizations can fill the new political space created by PB that may otherwise be occupied by vested interests and political elites.

Democratización de la inversión pública en Chile. El caso del presupuesto participativo en la región de Los Ríos

AbstractParticipatory budgeting emerged in Latin America, specifically in Brazil in the year 1989, expanding gradually along the continent. Its implementation has been varied in the different countries as well as in each one of them. Chilean experiences of participatory budgeting have been mostly in municipalities. More than 40 municipalities of different political affiliations developed since 2001 participatory budgets and maintained it to date. This article describes and analyzes the only case of participatory budgeting at the regional level in Chile, developed since 2014 in Los Ríos region. The paper aims to explore the institutional design and conditioning factors in its development in order to identify the factors that influence democratic processes in public investment at the regional level. As main result, as well as in the municipal experiences, the predominant factor in the origin and development of participatory budgeting is the government’s political will. However, the initial empowerment of social leaders was decisive for this participatory mechanism no to been used as a cooptation strategy or as a renewal of political clientelism at territorial level, as it has been shown in most cases of this nature both in Chile and in Latin America. The methodology applied was the study of case. The methodological proposal on categorization of “origin and conditioning factors” of the participatory budgeting elaborated by Goldfrank (2006) and Cabannes (2004) and later merged into the work of Montecinos (2012 and 2014) was take as reference.

A participação popular no orçamento público: orçamento participativo em quatro municípios do sul do Brasil

As funções do orçamento público vêm sofrendo diversas alterações ao longo do tempo, passando de mero instrumento de controle do legislativo sobre o executivo chegando até conceitos mais modernos, uma vez que é encarado como ferramenta de planejamento, de gestão eficiente e, mais recentemente, de participação popular. Dessa forma, este trabalho tem o objetivo de analisar a discussão de algumas experiências de orçamento participativo desenvolvidas no sul do Brasil a partir da Constituição de 1988. Para tanto, buscou-se resgatar um pouco sobre as principais conquistas obtidas por meio da participação da sociedade, bem como a importância do orçamento participativo como ferramenta que garanta a participação popular na elaboração do orçamento público. Foram analisadas as experiências descritas na literatura sobre a implantação do orçamento participativo nos municípios de Porto Alegre (RS), Biguaçu (SC), Blumenau (SC) e Chapecó (SC). As análises dessas experiências demonstram que as conquistas com orçamento participativo superam a mera participação popular na elaboração dos orçamentos, influenciando a elaboração de políticas públicas. No entanto, o comprometimento governamental, ou a falta dele, afeta diretamente a implantação e a manutenção do orçamento participativo.

What Mr. Rossi Wants in Participatory Budgeting: Two R’s (Responsiveness and Representation) and Two I’s (Inclusiveness and Interaction)

ABSTRACTParticipatory budgeting is a form of “co-planning” and “co-design” that is claimed to improve the level of democracy and public accountability. Drawing on evidence from the municipality of Rho’s participatory budgeting experience (in 2013 and 2014), this paper, through a Q analysis of citizens’ perceptions, reveals four types of “co-planners/co-designers,” including: (1) supporter in theory, but doubtful in practice; (2) worried about the trade-off between consensus and creativity; (3) supporter of a community approach; and (4) aware of the importance of citizens. Drawing on these results, four conditions for successfully implementing participatory budgeting are identified: responsiveness, representation, inclusiveness, and interaction.

Is the city the appropriate scale for participatory democracy? Some answers from Brazil

This study compares participatory budgeting at the city and state level in Brazil. It shows that, that even though the practice of participatory budgeting more closely resembles the ideals of participatory democracy at the city level, this does not mean that participatory democracy is impossible at larger scales. To the contrary, the difference between participatory budgeting at the city and state level is more a question of gradations than vast leaps of democratic merit. Furthermore, some of the features that are considered unique to the city – neighborhood-based community associations that mobilize and discuss with citizens in local public spheres – are also important in participatory budgeting at the state level. The experiences of participatory budgeting at the city and state level in Brazil suggest that it is wrong to overemphasize the uniqueness of the city and also to undervalue the special role the city might play in larger participatory processes.

Comunità, partecipazione e democrazia deliberativa: un’esperienza italiana

There is little doubt that deliberative democracy represents the most important innovation in the democratic debate and practices of recent decades. In the 1990s, after the pioneering phase, scholars progressively elaborated on both the conceptual and the operational problems of deliberative processes. Moreover, the internal dynamics of deliberative arenas as well as their relationships with politics and policy-making have been increasingly addressed by such analyses. The book Discutere e agire. Una sperimentazione di democrazia deliberativa a Novara (edited by Giacomo Balduzzi and Davide Servetti, Novara, Interlinea, 2014) describes the main aspects of an Italian experience. Although this case is just one of the many taking place in a context of growing spread of deliberative democracy, it shows some original elements. The attempt to create a stable connection between citizen concerns and policy-making, discussed in this book, is comparable only with the experiences of participatory budgeting, which however are constrained within a format that limits citizens’ participation to the allocation of a portion of the municipal budget.

El Aprendizaje Político de la Participación: el Caso del Presupuesto Participativo de Elche (Alicante) en España

After a decade of implementation of experiences of participatory budgeting in Spain is still know little impacts real that these projects have on the learning of the participants, these citizens, elected or technical. This article aims to provide more knowledge about the educational impact of participation based on the results of empirical research on these learning and changes experienced by participants in a real experience of participatory budgeting in the city of Elche (Spain) during the years 2008 to 2011. Do this and using as reference previous work of Pontual (2000), Lerner and Schugurensky (2007) and Luchmann (2012), were interviewed in depth, with formats of questions, citizens, elected and municipal technicians. Key words: Participatory Budgeting; informal learning; citizenship; participation

How Participatory Budgeting Changes the Meaning and Practices of Citizenship

What does it mean to be a citizen today? In an era where boundaries are being questioned, where identities are being transformed, where social and political claims are being updated from the traditional ‘recognition’ or ‘redistribution’ discourse to a more globalized discourse supported by a theoretical appeal to human rights, it is important to clarify where the ‘citizen’ stands, morally and politically speaking.This paper is supported by a) a strong moral and political reading of citizenship, echoing some republican tradition where citizenship is associated with virtue; and b) the assumption that there is a strong correlation between virtuous citizens and a virtuous republic or ‘democracy’. In order to reflect upon the transformations of the concept of citizenship I will look at some of the practices it involves, more precisely, I will look into the participatory budgeting experience in Portugal trying to show how the progressive implementation of such measure promises to bring Portuguese’s democracy to a new level with a more robust practice of citizenship.This paper has three moments: first, I will situate myself from a theoretical standpoint, regarding the concept of citizenship I want to defend. I will show how the way in which we conceive citizenship a) will determine the forms and shapes democracy can take and b) will influence the future of democracy, insofar it can contribute, enhance or undermine democratic aspirations and goals. Second, after arguing for an active sense of citizenship I will advance the argument that the future of democracy lies in participatory practices, in which the citizen plays a key role. Third, I will turn to a case study in order to illuminate my theoretical argument. Having participatory budgeting experiment in Portugal as paradigmatic case of analysis, I will identify some elements present in the Portuguese case that corroborate our hypothesis that the future of democracy must rely in participatory mechanisms and practices.

(In) stability, a key element to understand participatory budgeting: Discussing Portuguese cases

Much has been said about Participatory Budgeting. Still, how to make it a successful and long-lasting experience remains open for debate. Studies have advanced in analyzing many PB “features”, discussing its capacity to promote transparency, empowerment and accountability. However, little was said about its capacity to maintain continuity over time. With the increasing number of experiences all over the world we can observe that not always the numeric growth represent the emergency of strong and stable experiences. Many Participatory Budgeting experiences are implemented but after a short time disappear from the local political agenda. In this paper we analyze the Portuguese Participatory Budgeting panorama discussing the phenomenon of fragility and volatility that many PB have faced in this country. We argue that the explanatory power of some apparently important variables, such as ruling party change, is very limited. Finally, based on the empirical discussion we propose an analytical model that may help to understand the dynamics of this phenomenon in Portugal and other countries. We think that identifying “fragility” points is an important step for enhancing Participatory Budgeting experiences.

Anestetizzare il conflitto? Slittamenti di significato di due casi brasiliani di Bilancio Partecipativo

The article aims to analyze the transformations of two Brazilian experiences of Participatory Budgeting (PB) following a political change of the governing majority in 2005. The main focus relates to the shrinking of the potential for conflict which is usually considered a pivotal element in the success of such a participatory tool. The essay is based on two well-known case studies - those of the metropolises of Sao Paulo and Porto Alegre - whose last political period has not been the object of many studies, unlike previous phases during which their Participatory Budgeting practices became a worldwide references. The article highlights the ways such institutional transformations (which modified PB in Porto Alegre, while suspending and substituting it in Sao Paulo) have been associated with the emergence of a new discourse on participation, more focused on a partnership-driven perspective. The results underline that the shrinking of conflictive spaces provided by the new participatory arenas is part of a wider significant shift in the relationship established with stakeholders and citizens at large. The shift involves the institutional design of the participatory processes as well as the degree of empowerment fostered by the two experiences.