John D. Cameron
Dalhousie University
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

A better understanding of the differences between the ‘public performances’ and ‘backstage commentaries’ of poor and marginalized people in participatory budget schemes is important for both development practitioners and scholars. For practitioners, it is important to recognize that people may take part in participatory budget meetings to pursue goals that are very different from those of well-intended government officials and NGO staff. The divergence of popular goals and strategies from those of development professionals does not necessarily imply the ignorance or false-consciousness of poor and marginalized people, but rather may reflect a well-grounded skepticism of externally- driven development schemes and conceptions of development that vary from those of governments and donor agencies. I am not arguing that the strategies or knowledge of participants is either superior or inferior to that of outside development professionals, simply that it may be difficult to pursue some important long-term development goals – such as increased economic productivity and improved health – through participatory budget schemes in which local actors may prioritize more immediate short-term goals such as income earned through cement projects. At the same time, the widespread prioritization of small-scale cement projects in participatory budget meetings in the rural Andes should lead practitioners to reflect on the capacity of projects designed to serve long-term development goals to also serve the immediate priorities of local participants.

For scholars working from both mainstream institutionalist and more critical political economy and Foucauldian perspectives, it is important to recognize that the behaviour of participants in participatory budget meetings cannot be inferred from either the institutional design of participatory budgets or the intent of the donor and government agencies behind them. The involvement of poor and marginalized people in participatory budget schemes should not be confused with compliance with the goals of those schemes.

The subtle and hidden forms of agency that poor and marginalized people exercise within participatory budgets spaces should not be romanticized as resistance to ‘good governance’ initiatives intended to promote neoliberal globalization, but nor should it be overlooked. For practitioners and scholars alike, a greater understanding of the infrapolitics of participatory budgets requires more careful interpretation of what participants say and do not say in participatory budget meetings and a recognition that what they reveal quietly outside of those meetings may be more indicative of their priorities than what they say in public.

Read full article at allacademic

Participatory democracy, Brazil-style, is running into problems

By Michael Fox

“Although the Workers’ Party lost control of the city government in 2004, Mayor Fogaça (who was re-elected last year under the centrist Brazilian Democratic Movement Party) promised to maintain the process.

On its 20th anniversary, this year’s assemblies had surprisingly high participation thanks to the federal “Minha Casa, Minha Vida” (My House, My Life) program, which promises to finance a million homes across Brazil by 2010. City officials told Porto Alegre residents that if they were interested in enrolling in the program, they should participate in the PB process. Residents came out in record numbers. “It has become part of the city. It is not a political process,” says Ernani Mário da Pereira, the city’s Participatory Budgeting Transportation theme coordinator. “The process is not part of the government—it is part of our residents.”

But with cronyism, a drop in funds and almost everything behind schedule, long-time participants worry the process could be headed toward extinction in Porto Alegre.

“The projects that we prioritize aren’t carried out,” said Roberto Oliveira, president of the Vila São Judas Neighborhood Association, in the region of Partenon. He strongly denounced the system’s shortcomings during a regional assembly in May. “In the last three years in Partenon, not one road was paved through participatory budgeting … Health, which was one of our priorities, didn’t get one cent.”

Like many city residents, Oliveira blames Mayor Fogaça for the process’ “half-dead, semi-vegetative state.” Porto Alegre residents are clear that any mayor who attempts to rid the city of Participatory Budgeting would quickly find himself without a job.

“So it’s easier not to eliminate [participatory budgeting], but in reality it doesn’t work. It’s propaganda,” Oliveira says. Oliveira’s comments are echoed by the non-governmental organization Cidade, which has been following Porto Alegre’s participatory process from the beginning. Its statistics show that only one percent of the city budget is now debated in participatory budgeting, a tremendous drop from its heyday when all budgeting decisions were discussed and as much as 10 percent was decided directly by residents.

Nevertheless, participatory initiatives across the planet continue to look to Porto Alegre. In 2007, Cidade held an international conference on the future of participatory democracy. Some are now calling for a profound analysis of the system.”

Read full report at In These Times

Josh Lerner (New School for Social Research)
Daniel Schugurensky (University of Toronto)

See article:

Rosario PB

Benjamin Goldfrank – UNM/Political Science
Andrew Schrank – UNM/Sociology

See file here:

Mike Geddes
Valeria Guarneros-Meza

Local Governance: Cross National Trends and Research Issues

Aaron Schneider

Crisis in the home of Participatory Budgeting

Corinne Thatcher

http://participatorybudgeting.blogs.com/op/2007/01/pb_in_porto_ale.html

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Between Revolution and Transformism

THE CASE OF PORTO ALEGRE

MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT OF PORTO ALEGRE
Launching Seminar of URBAL NETWORK No. 9
MUNICIPAL FINANCE AND PARTICIPATORY BUDGETING
BASE DOCUMENT
2004
Full document available: http://www2.portoalegre.rs.gov.br/urbal9_ing/

The explosion of experience