9. Participatory budgeting Flashcards
participatory budgeting
democratic policymaking process that enables citizens to allocate public monies.
origins participatory budgeting
originated in Brazil in the late 1980s after two decades of military dictatorship, as part of an effort to simultaneously build a democratic culture and deliver public goods to underserviced communities
effect participatory budgeting in Brazil
participatory budgeting in Brazil has enhanced governance, citizens’ empowerment, and the quality of democracy
also associated with increases in civil society organizations, spending for healthcare, and decreases in infant mortality
USA participatory budgeting
emphasis on participation, deliberation, direct involvement in decision making, and social justice
goal of participatory budgeting
provide a context for people to engage more deeply in their democracy
aim to enhance governance, citizens’ empowerment, and the quality of democracy
institutional rules of PB are designed to improve the quality of participants’ discourse, roles, responsibilities, and impact
engaging in democracy, quality of democracy, enhance government
deliberation particpatory budgeting
it contains a deliberative element, through which non-elite citizens are brought into discussion, dialogue, and negotiation with one another
deliberative aspect: discussions / dialogue / negotation
Three criteria to govern a systemic approach for deliberative democracy (Mansbridge)
- Epistemic democracy to produce preferences, opinions, and discussions to produce preferences, opinions, and discussions that are appropriately informed by logic and are the outcome of substantive / meaningful consideration of relevant reasons.
- Ethical function to foster mutual respect towards effective communication.
- Democratic function supports an inclusive political process with equality
EDD (empowered deliberative democracy)
presses the values of participation, deliberation, and empowerment to the apparent limits of prudence and feasibility
EDD places PB in dialogue with diverse initiatives meant to give citizens an additional voice in decision making
concerns on particpatory democracy / particpatory budgeting
= concept has travelled too far, lost its original intent
concern that participatory democracy has come to be seen as “ideological, oriented to personal transformation, and—no coincidence—as white”
viewed as driven by principles instead of impact, focused on personal self-liberation rather than political change, and dominated by white, rather than black, participants
additional critique of deliberative democracy, and participatory democracy in particular, is the lack of concern or relationships with wider society
ostrom on individuals working together
Individuals are more likely to work together to find mutually agreeable solutions because democratic deliberation is not a zero-sum game but can produce positive-sum outcomes
Ostrom’s insights are applicable to participatory democracy because citizens are encouraged to deliberate with each other regarding how they will spend scarce resources; citizens and government officials negotiating within PB have a past history and they are likely to work together again in the future, so there is a strong emphasis on cooperation
deliberation –> cooperation for a positive-sum outcome
ostrom applicability (collective action) on participatory budgeting
- PB encourages deliberation, which involves speaking and listening
- PB encourages formation of voting alliances among citizens, many of them who may not know each other initially. Encourages cooperation.
- PB encourages ongoing commitment from its participants to hold government to account and keep process running year-to-year.
deliberation
= process in which all participants are induced to deliberate over policy proposals and community needs
kristof definition participatory budgeting
Participatory budgeting is a decision-making procedure during which citizens deliberate and decide about (part of) a public budget.
decision making procedure / citizens deliberate / public budget
What is a failure of participatory budgeting
- Lack of follow-up
- Negative unintended consequence
Part of the problem: not easy to define what a failure is. Spada & Ryan say that when it works, it survives. Sometimes participatory things are abandoned after time, so it is more about durability.
what do politicians consider to be a failure
numbers. Numbers are not there. Like they want to get 1000 people to a participatory budgeting thing, but this number did not turn up.
new ideas. There are new ideas / projects politicians did not come up with.
old white man. Not just old white man that are there.
not enough people / unintended ideas / only one demographic kind
