The challenge
City investment followed patronage, and poor neighborhoods lacked basic services.
The case
In 1989 Porto Alegre, Brazil, began letting residents decide part of the city's investment budget. Each year, open neighborhood and thematic assemblies set priorities and elected delegates, who negotiated spending with the city. Within a decade, tens of thousands of residents took part each year, and investment shifted toward poorer neighborhoods. Households with water and sewer connections rose from about 75% in 1988 to 98% in 1997. After changes in city administration in the 2000s, the process lost much of its budget share and influence.
Why the results were mixed
It worked while residents had real control over real money, and faded once political backing weakened. Many of the thousands of copies around the world kept the assemblies but not the budget power, and got weaker results.
Sources
- Baiocchi, G. (2005). Militants and Citizens: The Politics of Participatory Democracy in Porto Alegre. Stanford University Press.
- World Bank. Empowerment Case Studies: Participatory Budgeting in Brazil.
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