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8 - Participatory Budgeting

from Part II - Participatory Governance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 April 2024

By
Loren Peabody
Edited by
Brian D. Christens
Brian D. Christens
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University, Tennessee
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Summary

Participatory budgeting (PB) is a democratic process that engages citizens in public investment decisions through a mix of deliberation, representation, and voting. This chapter describes how this democratic innovation has been practiced, elaborates its goals, provides an overview of its origins and diffusion, and reviews research on its outcomes for citizen engagement, local governance, and community empowerment. These findings are illustrated by two case studies. Porto Alegre, Brazil, not only represents the birthplace of PB, but also is an example of uniquely pronounced changes in government responsiveness to underserved communities and in the strength of civil society organizations after PB’s implementation. New York City’s program is fairly representative of PB as practiced in the Global North. Controlling a smaller share of city budgets, processes like PBNYC have been more able to replicate Porto Alegre’s model of equitable citizen engagement than to transform urban governance or the organization of local civil society.

Keywords

participatory budgetingparticipatory democracyempowered participatory governancecivic engagementpolitical participationpolitical mobilizationcommunity empowermentmunicipal budgetspublic financeNew York City (NY)Porto Alegre (Brazil)
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Community Empowerment , pp. 216 - 240
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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