ABSTRACT
Augusto Boal’s Brazil is a country marked by deep inequities, but it is also home to many experiments with novel ways of making politics from below. Participatory Budgeting, a hallmark of Workers’ Party administrations throughout Brazil, is one innovative form of participatory democracy and policy-making. Challenging the prejudice that “average citizens” are not capable of making “technical” decisions, this participatory system literally turns over most municipal budgeting decisions to citizen assemblies, where through a yearlong process of learning and discussion, participants throughout the city decide on budget priorities and specific projects. Participatory Budgeting is now practiced in hundreds of municipalities in Brazil and has served as inspiration for democratic reforms throughout the world, involving thousands of citizens in each locality within which it is practiced.
