Participatory budgeting practices across contexts: understanding how governance structures influence processes in Brazil and Chicago
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Date
2016
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AESOP
Abstract
In recent years, the “participatory turn” in urban planning has become popular around the world. Some of the most impressive and important examples of participatory democracy have come from Brazil, including participatory budgeting, municipal housing and health councils, and city master plan elaboration processes (Arvitzer, 2009). As these examples have become recognized “best practices,” they have been adopted and adapted in numerous other cities beyond South America (Peck and Theodore, 2015). Nonetheless, as these practices of policy mobility occur, so too occur processes of “translation” into the new social, political, governmental context of their deployment (McCann and Ward, 2011). Over the past four years a growing number of aldermen/alderwomen (councilmembers) have provided a portion of discretionary funding spending to be determined by localized participatory budgeting proceedings in their respective districts.
Building upon research previously conducted on forms of participatory democracy in Brazil, this research examines four years of participatory budgeting experiences in the North American city of Chicago, Illinois and compares how governance structures influence the participatory budgeting process and differ from those in the policy “origin” location of Brazil. At a macro level, Brazil’s federal structure differs greatly from that of the United States in terms of urban planning enabling legislation. At a specific level, municipal governance in Chicago is greatly influenced by its unique district-alderman system, with high levels of political power held at this sub-municipal level; whereas Brazilian municipalities’ systems of citywide councilmembers (vereadores) concentrate more power at the municipal level.
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Proceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the south
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