Participatory Budgeting in the city of Recife, Brazil - the world’s most participative public agency?

Objectives

Although a form of PB was instituted by the Workers Party mayor (Jabes Vasconcelos) in the late 1980s, it was not a fully popular participative model – the city budget was not sufficiently big at that time to allow that, nor was participation such a priority. Indeed, for two terms only a few of the popular actions demanded through the PB approach were able to be implemented - just enough was done to hold popular frustration in check. The subsequent (liberal) administration carried out even fewer of the initiatives demanded in the PB process and, when it left power in 2001, it was found that all the PB files in the city had been burnt.

It was only after 2001 that PB took on the character of a fully democratic popular movement. The coalition government elected at that time initially formed a minority in the city council and made participation one of its governing principles – indeed, PB was the first point in its programme.
The main purposes which the City Council of Recife originally had in mind when designing and running PB were:

• To give people a belief that they can play an important role in the co-management of the city and in the decisions which influence their quality of life
• To increase the perceived democratic legitimacy of the City Council by demonstrating that its actions are in line with what local people really want
• To find better ways to meet the needs and priorities of local people

Leading politicians in the new government recognized that there would be scepticism about whether  this new PB programme would really be implemented.. The new administration therefore committed itself to the principles of:

• Transparency – so that people could see what had been agreed and what was being done
• Co-management – so that people felt involved in the process from beginning to end
• Universal right to engage – everyone had a vote in the process
• Implementing agreed actions – so that the community had tangible outcomes that made their involvement  worthwhile

Of course, such ambitious objectives and principles run the danger of raising expectations. As the mayor, João da Costa, commented in an interview with Governance International: “At first, when they saw what we were trying to do, they thought we were mad!”

In order to stop people expecting too much, it was essential that people themselves became involved in the prioritization process – in fighting for their ideas of what was MOST needed, people realized quickly that not everything was possible. This reinforced understanding that the main role of government is to make choices. By sharing these choices with the population, responsibility for the choices made was also shared. This meant that it was no longer possible for people simply to blame the government for things that were done – and not done. In this way, people were encouraged to co-govern with the administration, and to understand the role that both played in making choices for the city.