Editing Participatory budgeting (section)

== History ==
[[File:Esquina democrática.jpg|thumb|right|Participatory budgeting has been practiced in [[Porto Alegre]] since 1989.]]

{{external media | width = 210px | float = right | headerimage=  | video1 = [https://www.ted.com/talks/shari_davis_what_if_you_could_help_decide_how_the_government_spends_public_funds/transcript?language=en#t-671 "What if you could help decide how the government spends public funds"], Shari Davis, TED talk, July 16, 2020.}}

Participatory budgeting was first developed in the 1980s by the [[Workers' Party (Brazil)|Brazilian Workers' Party]] (PT), drawing on the party's stated belief that electoral success is not an end in itself but a springboard for developing radical, participatory forms of democracy. While there were several early experiments (including the public budgeting practices of the [[Brazilian Democratic Movement]] in municipalities such as [[Pelotas]]<ref name="Shah2007">{{cite book|last1=Shah|first1=Anwar|url=https://siteresources.worldbank.org/PSGLP/Resources/ParticipatoryBudgeting.pdf|title=Participatory Budgeting|date=2007|publisher=The World Bank|isbn=978-0-8213-6924-1|editor1-last=Shah|editor1-first=Anwar|location=Washington D.C.|doi=10.1596/978-0-8213-6923-4|hdl=10986/6640|s2cid=239243049 |access-date=12 April 2018}}</ref>{{rp|page=92}}), the first full participatory budgeting process was implemented in the city of [[Porto Alegre|Porto Alegre, Brazil]], in 1989. Porto Alegre is the capital city of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, and a busy industrial, financial, and service center; at that time of implementation, it had a population of 1.2 million.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Making a People's Budget in Porto Alegre. NACLA Report On The Americas|last=Wainwright|first=H.|year=2003|pages=36(5), 37–42}}</ref> The initial success of participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre soon made it attractive to other municipalities. By 2001, more than 100 cities in Brazil had implemented participatory budgeting, while in 2015, thousands of variations have been implemented in the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Europe.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|title =How Participatory Budgeting Travels the Globe|issue = 2|url = http://www.publicdeliberation.net/jpd/vol8/iss2/art8/|journal = Journal of Public Deliberation|volume = 8|access-date = 2015-11-17|date = 2012-12-30|last1 = Ganuza|first1 = Ernesto|last2 = Baiocchi|first2 = Gianpaolo}}</ref>

===Porto Alegre===

In its [[Constitution of Brazil#Title 1|first Title]], the [[History of the Constitution of Brazil#Citizen Constitution .281988 .E2.80.93 present.29|1988 Constitution of Brazil]] states: "All power originates from the people, who exercise it by the means of elected representatives or directly, according to the terms of this Constitution." The authoring of the Constitution was a reaction to the previous twenty years of [[Brazilian military government|military dictatorship]], and the new Constitution sought to secure individual liberty while also decentralizing and democratizing ruling power, in the hope that authoritarian dictatorship would not reemerge.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|title = From Clientelism to Cooperation: Local Government, Participatory Policy, and Civic Organizing in Porto Alegre, Brazil|last = Abers|first = Jessica|date = 1998|journal = Politics & Society|doi = 10.1177/0032329298026004004|pages = 511–537|volume=26|issue = 4|s2cid = 154038651}}</ref>

Brazil's contemporary [[political economy]] is an outgrowth of the [[Portuguese Empire|Portuguese empire's]] patrimonial capitalism, where "power was not exercised according to rules, but was structured through personal relationships".<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|title = Participatory Budgeting in Porto Alegre: Social Innovation and the Dialectical Relationship of State and Civil Society|journal = Urban Studies|date = 2005-10-01|issn = 0042-0980|pages = 2023–2036|volume = 42|issue = 11|doi = 10.1080/00420980500279828|first1 = Andreas|last1 = Novy|first2 = Bernhard|last2 = Leubolt| bibcode=2005UrbSt..42.2023N |s2cid = 143202031}}</ref> Unlike the [[Athenian democracy|Athenian ideal of democracy]], in which all citizens participate directly and decide policy collectively, Brazil's government is structured as a [[republic]] with [[Representative democracy|elected representatives]]. This creates a separation between the state and [[civil society]], which has opened the doors for [[clientelism]]. Because the law-making process occurs behind closed doors, elected officials and bureaucrats can access state resources in ways that benefit certain 'clients', typically those of extraordinary social or economic relevance. The influential clients receive policy favors and repay elected officials with votes from the groups they influence. For example, a neighborhood leader who represents the views of shop owners may ask a local party official for laws to increase foot traffic on commercial streets. At the same time, the neighborhood leader mobilizes shop owners to vote for the political party responsible for the policy. Because this patronage operates on the basis of individual ties between patron and clients, true decision-making power is limited to a small network of party officials and influential citizens rather than the broader public.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite journal|title = Participatory Budgeting in Porto Alegre: Toward a Redistributive Democracy|journal = Politics & Society|date = 1998-12-01|issn = 0032-3292|pages = 461–510|volume = 26|issue = 4|doi = 10.1177/0032329298026004003|hdl = 10316/10839|first = BOAVENTURA de SOUSA|last = Santos| s2cid=220787756 |hdl-access = free}}</ref>

In 1989, [[Olívio Dutra]] won the mayor's seat in Porto Alegre. In an attempt to encourage popular participation in government and redirect government resources towards the poor, Dutra institutionalized the [[Workers' Party (Brazil)|PT]]'s organizational structure on a citywide level. The result is what we now know as participatory budgeting.

PB was active in Porto Alegre until 2017. Over time, city leaders’ political support for the participatory budget has declined, and Porto Alegre’s current leadership has suspended the process.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Abers |first1=Rebecca |last2=King |first2=Robin |last3=Votto |first3=Daniely |last4=Brandão |first4=Igor |date=2018-06-13 |title=Porto Alegre: Participatory Budgeting and the Challenge of Sustaining Transformative Change |url=https://www.wri.org/research/porto-alegre-participatory-budgeting-and-challenge-sustaining-transformative-change |language=en}}</ref>