Participatory

Governance
Maureen Donaghy
Assistant Professor
Departments of Political Science and Public Policy and Administration
Rutgers University, Camden

Presentation to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

July 7, 2016
What is Participatory Governance?
 Governance – the process of governing, defined by who makes the
decisions

 Participatory governance – involving citizens and civil society

organizations in decision making

 Complement to elections – how else can citizens be involved in

decision making?

 Adopted by city, state, and national level governments

 Promoted by international NGOs, the UN, World Bank

Why has participatory governance been
so popular in Latin America?
 Democratic institutions still developing post-authoritarian regimes

 As a region, LA suffers from the highest level of inequality in the world

 Known for the practice of clientelism, weak accountability mechanisms,

unequal access to the rights of citizenship

 Left wave from the late 1990s to the 2000’s

What does participatory governance look
like?
 Planning processes with community groups and government officials

 Budgeting processes

 Participatory councils – at various levels of government; inclusion of civil

society, government officials, and private sector

 National or Local Conferences – agenda setting

What Challenges Can Participatory
Governance Address?
 Transparency – increasing access to information

 Responsiveness – direct input into problems and solutions

 Accountability – monitoring, public scrutiny reduces corruption

Theoretical Impact
 On Citizens themselves – empowerment, understanding on rights as well as
capacity of government, building social capital

 Services and programs – better targeted to needs, more responsive to needs

(i.e. healthcare, education, housing, infrastructure), better monitoring

 On government officials – more open to sharing control

 On poverty and inequality – programs that reach the poor, political power

 Note: Impact can be difficult, but not impossible, to measure.

Challenges to Participatory Governance

 Generating participation among diverse groups

 Persuading officials to cede power and resources

 Co-optation in the process

 Donor-driven or federal-driven initiatives without local support

How can participatory institutions be
more effective?
 Rules that allow for true deliberation

 Significant allocation of resources to incentivize participation and legitimize

the process

 Organizations with the capacity to push for implementation

 Ideologically inclined administration

 Need long-term commitment

Examples of Participatory
Institutions in Brazil
Part 2
Why Brazil?

 Constitution of 1988 established social and economic rights

 Workers’ Party emerged in the 1980s

 Long history of corruption and clientelism

 Highly urban; decentralized governance

Housing in Brazil
Housing deficit somewhere around 20 million homes

Types of housing programs: urbanization, regularization, constructing new units

(like public housing), construction materials
Participatory Councils: Housing in Brazil

 Municipal level councils deliberate on policies, program implementation, and

resources

 Mandated by the federal level to receive certain funding, but institutional

rules made at the local level

 Generally include members from civil society, government, and private sector

 Need to civil society to counteract the weight of the construction and real
estate companies for land and resources.
Impact of Housing Councils
 Survey data from all of Brazil’s 5,564 municipalities

 Asked whether municipalities with councils were more likely to adopt housing
programs.

 Findings: councils associated with 3-11% greater likelihood of program

adoption
 Density of civil society not significantly related.

 Conclusion: Housing councils matter

 Other forms of activism still important: occupations, negotiation, advocacy

Participatory Budgeting in Porto Alegre,
Brazil
 City in the South of Brazil, 1.3 million residents

 Established by a Workers’ Party mayor in 1989, over 40,000 people

participated

 Twice-yearly regional plenary assemblies feed all-city meeting to vote on

budget proposals, series of discussions before the vote

 Impact on health - increase in sewage and water connections by 75% in first

10 years
What was the PB process like in
practice?
 Beyond Elections
 How do the residents in the film express the benefits of PB?

 What projects did they attribute to PB?

 BUT – What happened after the Workers’ Party (PT) lost the election in 2004?

 What does this case tell us about the fragility of participatory governance?
Transfer of Participatory Budgeting
 Participatory Budgeting in NYC
Questions

 What factors might sustain the participatory budgeting process over time?

 What are the positive benefits of citizen participation in formulating the

budget, and what might be some concerns?

 Could PB decrease cynicism of democracy in the US today?

A word about Rio as you watch the
Olympics…
 Rio has participatory institutions, but they do not function effectively.

 Lack of buy-in from both government and civil society

 Case of Vila Autódromo next to main Olympic Park –

 over 500 families evicted from homes
 long-term resistance led to market-rate indemnity payments, nearby public
housing, and finally urbanization for remaining 20 families
 No participatory approach, relied on the public defender and global media
 Would participatory governance have helped in this situation?
Conclusions

 Participatory governance can address challenges of representative democracy,

by promoting transparency, responsiveness, and accountability

 Particularly important in Latin America where democratic institutions are

historically weak and inequality is high

 Two examples of participatory governance institutions – budgeting processes

and housing councils – demonstrate positive impact