Participatory Budgeting in Porto Alegre: Social Innovation and the Dialectical Relationship of State and Civil Society

Abstract

This article focuses on the identification and role of social innovation in urban development. The aim is to further the understanding of the contradictory relationship between state and civil society, using a thorough analysis of the process of participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre, the capital city of Rio Grande do Sul-the most southern state of Brazil. The first section spells out four different concepts of the relationship between state and civil society and their implications for social innovation. In the second section, these popular movements are shown to be embedded in the historically rooted structure of patrimonialism and capitalism in Brazil. The third section provides an historical analysis of Brazilian popular movements which represent new key actors in civil society. The fourth section offers a detailed description of the process of the participatory budget. In the final section, conclusions are drawn about social innovation in local politics, focusing on the empowering experiments with new public and democratic forms of the local state accessible to civil society and its interests.

Social innovation in question: The theoretical and practical implications of a contested concept

“…In this meaning these movements themselves are seen as a SI, irrespective of their outputs. The second meaning is narrower, and refers to the strategies that individuals and organisations that are part of these movements devise to develop, strengthen or reinvigorate their cause (Novy and Leubolt, 2005;Papakostas, 2011). This meaning is closer to what we would call targeted radical SI, which will be discussed in greater detail in subsequent paragraphs.…”

“…We argue instead that this lack of rigour limits the potential of this concept, as a tool for both research and action. Based on our literature review, we observed that articles using the term SI often shift seamlessly between definitions of what SI is and what it should be (Borzaga and Bodini, 2014;Cajaiba-Santana, 2014;Grimm et al, 2013;Mieg and To¨ pfer, 2013;Novy and Leubolt, 2005;Pol and Ville, 2009). This use of the term occasionally leaves the reader unaware of what has been observed in practice and what the agents on the field, or the author, would like to have seen happen as a result of their own values.…”

Peru’s Participatory Budgeting: Configurations of Power, Opportunities for Change

“…Participatory Budgeting is therefore also labelled "citizenship school" [12]. Through taking part in public discussions, individual participants learn to relate their personal needs to the public interest, in addition, they learn to appreciate the needs of others [27]. The citizenship school is open to all.…”

Reference Process Model for Participatory Budgeting in Germany

“…Porto Alegre (Brazil), which implemented the first participatory budget in 1989 to fight corruption in administrations [35,36], is one of the most studied cases in the field of participatory budgeting (see e. g. [4,15,22]). Participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre is running throughout the year and composed of four main phases [15, p. 54]: (1) prioritizing topics through citizenship, (2) elaborating the budget proposal, (3) enacting the budget in city council and (4) elaborating, implementation and control of the investment plan.…”