The World Bank and the Globalization of Participatory Budgeting

Abstract

This article addresses the long-standing controversy over the World Bank's role in the promotion of participatory budgeting (PB). Some on the left have celebrated the Bank's funding and advocacy for PB as signifying the legitimacy or mainstream success of the process, while others see the Bank's endorsement of PB as a sign that participatory budgeting is becoming watered down and losing its transformative potential, if it ever had such potential. This debate has mostly been an ideological one, and little research has been done to provide evidence to either side. The article is the first to address what the Bank is doing to promote PB and why. It makes six main points. First, the originators of participatory budgeting, the Workers' Party in Brazil, is not promoting it as strongly as it used to. Second, the World Bank has become the most active promoter of PB (perhaps alongside the United Nations Development Program). Third, within the Bank, some promote PB as part of its fairly standard pro-market agenda, while others share many of the same goals as PB's originators. Fourth, though the Bank has become very important for the diffusion of PB, overall PB remains marginal within the Bank. Fifth, the Bank has little influence over the eventual outcomes of PB in different countries because it has little or no control over many of the factors that affect PB in practice. And sixth, because PB's effects have strong potential to be positive, the Bank's role in promoting PB should be encouraged.

Principles for Integrating the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in Cities

“…With a history of over 20 years in cities, PBs have been recommended by the World Bank [97] for their efficacy in improving health, inequality, social justice, and other non-environmental outcomes [98]. However, it has been argued that this style of PB is not a strongly deliberative experience [83,99] although it scores highly on the principles of influence and inclusion.…”

“…Moreover, as mentioned in Section 1.1, this mode of governance provides a potential mechanism to resolve the clash between some activities of developed nations (such as excessive consumption and arms sales) and the SDG related drives of developing ones (such as responsible consumption and security) [14]. There are examples of the potential for such scaling of influence: The global diffusion of Participatory Budgeting (PB) has been enabled by the World Bank which has lent its mainstream economic support to the promulgation of this initiative by investing millions of dollars in grants and loans in developing nations [97]. Deliberative democracy, predominantly implemented in western countries, is now extending to developing countries, including in Pune, India to improve the liveability of the city [117] as well as elsewhere on the subcontinent [118], and numerous Deliberative Polls that have been held in cities and regions in China over several decades [53].…”

Translating participatory budgeting in Russia: the roles of inscriptions and inscriptors

“…While such an approach witnessed a growing demand in the management accounting studies (Ezzamel & Xiao, 2015;Waeraas & Nielsen, 2016), only a few efforts have been made to trace how this happens with regard to the PB literature, especially when the PB initiative is not a centrally driven practice. In fact, while the significant role of international organizations and consultant groups in the global development of PB is emphasized (Goldfrank, 2012), it remains rather unclear what diverse actors do regarding the materialization of PB on the ground, as well as consequences of new allies' involvement. That emphasized, it is intellectually rewarding to examine what kinds of actors/allies have been involved in the fabrication of PB over time, and how they have impacted the formation of PB democratic values.…”

Orçamentos Participativos: variáveis explicativas e novos cenários que desafiam a sua implementação

“…Isso porque a participação social ocorre sobre a alocação do orçamento público, principal instrumento político de gestão do Estado moderno (Singer 1989). Daí explica-se alguns potenciais democráticos contidos nos OP e que de certa forma ajudam a compreender a atenção mundial que esta inovação passou a receber, apesar dos diferentes significados e objetivos dos seus agentes patrocinadores (Goldfrank 2012). Por seu desenho institucional permitir, em geral, a vocalização das demandas dos territórios locais, os OP podem desempenhar importante papel quanto à ampliação do direito à cidade (Lefebvre 1991).…”