Budgeting institutions in Brazil have brought participatory democracy to public finance. How does this challenge traditional thinking on budgets and democracy? This paper by the University of Sussex examines participatory budgeting (PB) in Rio Grande do Sul as an innovative process that can help us advance our previous understandings in both of these areas.
In 2001, the Brazilian Workers’ Party (PT) won its fourth consecutive municipal election in Porto Alegre, the capital of Brazil’s southern-most state, Rio Grande do Sul. This impressive string of election victories can be attributed largely to the PT administration’s commitment to a novel government policy called the participatory budget (PB) and to investment decisions that advanced a development model with important redistributive elements. A chief impact of participatory institutions is to change the relative power of groups within society. In this case, with the Workers’ Party in state office, participatory decision-making strengthened lower-class groups interested in redistribution to the poor. Putting PB in place was no easy task, however, as it required overcoming the difficulties of incorporating face-to-face decision-making at a scale unprecedented in terms of the number of people and the amount of money at stake. More significantly, implementing PB sparked the political opposition of those who had benefited from more closed decision-making structures. Political opponents tied to conservative visions of democracy and development recognised the threat to their power, and attempted to derail PB. However, powerful social movement allies and the experience of PB in Porto Alegre provided protection.
Despite the obstacles, the PB has attracted hundreds of thousands of participants and has had a significant impact.
- Institutionally, PB opens avenues to previously ignored segments of society and enhances government accountability.
- Politically, participatory budgeting shows signs of shifting the balance of power in the party system.
- Fiscally, the PB has promoted a redistributive development model while improving budgetary planning and efficiency.
- In short, the PB is the instrument and example of a lower-class political project that includes a participatory vision of democracy and a redistributive vision of development.
In part, the future success of the lower class political project may well depend on the consolidation and reproduction of PB institutions in Rio Grande do Sul and elsewhere. More generally, the experience of participatory budgeting in Rio Grande do Sul contradicts some accepted wisdom within theories of participation and theories of budgeting. For example:
- Participatory democracy appears to be both possible and advantageous in large groups.
- Participation does not necessarily imply a loss of capacity to operate efficiently and plan effectively.
- Budgeting institutions can be understood as part of a more general political project to exemplify and advance class interests in participatory forms of democracy and redistributive models of development.
