ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes specific recommendations for participatory budgeting (PB) in both the communicative and political dimensions in order to test the hypothesis. The recommendations should improve the quality of public deliberation and build broad civic support to fully empower and expand PB. These recommendations are based on a case study of PB in New York City (PBNYC), an ethnographic research of three PB processes in Europe, and the original PB process in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
The conditions needed for public deliberation are reviewed. And the experience of PBNYC is examined to learn where training for deliberation is needed. Also, research is studied about the significance of the composition of groups for small group deliberation. From these sources, rules and procedures to encourage deliberation are formed. Also, a method to measure the quality of deliberation is recommended.
The recommendations for the political dimension are based on the design of the original PB process in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The other source of the political recommendations is the need for civic group support. Civic groups can help mobilize people to protest the lack of meaningful political participation that is available.
