A Guide to Participatory Budgeting

Participatory Budgeting (PB) programs are innovative policymaking processes. Citizens are directly involved in making policy decisions. Forums are held throughout the year so that citizens have the opportunity to allocate resources, prioritize broad social policies, and monitor public spending. These programs are designed incorporate citizens into the policymaking process, spur administrative reform, and distribute public resources to low-income neighborhoods. Social and political exclusion is challenged as low- income and traditionally excluded political actors are given the opportunity to make policy decisions. Governments and citizens initiate these programs to (i) promote public learning and active citizenship, (ii) achieve social justice through improved policies and resources allocation, and (iii) reform the administrative apparatus.

Participating Budgeting programs confront Brazilian political legacies of clientelism, social exclusion, and corruption by making the budgetary process transparent, open, and public. By moving the locus of decision-making from the private offices of politicians and technocrats to public forums, these public forums foster transparency. Participatory budgeting programs act as “citizenship schools” as engagement empowers citizens to better understand their rights and duties as citizens as well as the responsibilities of government. Citizens, it is hoped, will offer helpful and creative solutions to the myriad social and economic problems found in Brazil’s urban centers and small towns. Citizens learn to negotiate among themselves and vis-à-vis the government over the distribution of scarce resources and public policy priorities.

It is important to keep in mind that there is no precise or exact model for PB programs. While there are similar tenets and institutional mechanisms, PB programs are structured in response to the particular political, social, and economic environment of each city or state. While alluding to the differences, this report will present a synthesis of the most representative cases.

The presumption of this guide is that the tools and institutional means developed in Brazil are, in small or large part, applicable elsewhere. Different municipalities and states across Brazil are adapting variations of the PB programs. These programs have been successfully implemented in the wealthy Southern region (Porto Alegre), the industrialized São Paulo metropolitan region (Santo Andre), and in the Northern Amazon region (Belém). It is our expectation that municipalities, states, and regional governments in diverse corners of the world can draw upon this experience to develop tools that link budget, policymaking, and citizen participation. Finally, it is our expectation that NGOs and local political activists can draw upon these experiences to promote formal PB programs or informal monitoring programs inspired by the PB example.