ABSTRACT
In Italy and, even more so, in Spain, participatory budgeting is most clearly inspired by the Porto Alegre experiment, which is why these cases led us to elaborate on the model of participatory democracy presented in Part I of the book. The idea of involving citizens in budgetary redistribution is usually linked to the transfer of decision-making powers to civil society and the promotion of social justice, and participants can often influence the rules of the process. This does not, however, imply that citizens are directly involved in implementing selected projects. Porto Alegre has had a fairly direct influence in these two Mediterranean countries through the World Social Forums. Another, more lasting means of influence have been visits and projects that took place prior to the ‘Local Authority Forums’, at which progressive mayors and politicians met on the margins of the World Social Forum, as well as through the URBAL network. This cooperation programme aimed at Latin American and European local authorities comprises, in particular, a network on ‘Local Finance and Participatory Budgeting’, coordinated by Porto Alegre. Most of the participating local councils came from Spain and Italy (Cabannes 2003). As we saw in Part I, it is in these two countries that European participatory budgets initially have developed the furthest. Have they actually managed to reproduce the Brazilian system? And how have they been able to graft it on to the existing, more traditional forms of participation?
