Abstract
Participatory budgeting (PB) is a democratic innovation where citizens participate directly in making collective decisions about how to spend public money. In the last 30 years, the process has been adopted in thousands of localities around the world, gaining steady support from governments, institutions and civil society. PB exemplifies how co-production can generate public value by enabling collaboration between professionals and citizens across communities of place, practice, identity and interest. PB processes are very diverse in scope, scale, ambition and impact, and while they embody various forms of co-production, this chapter focusses on co-commissioning because of its transformative potential to address health, social, economic and political inequalities. The chapter explores PB as co-production at the interface of public service reform, democratic innovation and social justice.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abers, R., Brandão, I., King, R. & Votto, D. 2018. Porto Alegre: Participatory Budgeting and the Challenge of Sustaining Transformative Change. World Resources Report Case Study. Washington, DC, World Resources Institute.
Allegretti, G. & Copello, K. 2018. Winding Around Money. What’s New in PB and Which Windows of Opportunity are Being Opened? In: Dias, N. (ed.) Hope for Democracy: 30 Years of Participatory Budgeting Worldwide. Faro, Portugal: Epopeia Records and Oficina.
Baiocchi, G. 2005. Militants and Citizens: The Politics of Participatory Democracy in Porto Alegre, Stanford, CA, Stanford University Press.
Baiocchi, G. & Ganuza, E. 2017. Popular Democracy: The Paradox of Participation. Stanford, CA, Stanford University Press.
Barbera, C., Sicilia, M. & Steccolini, I. 2016. The Participatory Budgeting as a Form of Co-production. In: Fugini, M., Bracci, E. & Sicilia, M. (eds.) Co-production in the Public Sector: Experiences and Challenges. Cham: Springer International.
Bovaird, T. & Loeffler, E. 2012. From Engagement to Co- Production: The Contribution of Users and Communities to Outcomes and Public Value. Voluntas, 23, 1119–1138.
Bovaird, T. & Loeffler, E. 2013. We’re All in This Together: Harnessing User and Community Co-production of Public Outcomes. Birmingham: Institute of Local Government Studies.
Bovaird, T., Van Ryzin, G. G., Loeffler, E. & Parrado, S. 2015. Activating Citizens to Participate in Collective Co-production of Public Services. Journal of Social Policy, 44, 1–23.
Brandsen, T., Steen, T. & Verschuere, B. (eds.) 2018. Co-production and Co-Creation: Engaging Citizens in Public Services. New York and London, Routledge.
Cabannes, Y. 2015. The Impact of Participatory Budgeting on Basic Services: Municipal Practices and Evidence from the Field. Environment & Urbanization, 27, 257–284.
Cabannes, Y. 2017. Participatory Budgeting in Paris: Act, Reflect, Grow. In: Cabannes, Y. (ed.) Another City is Possible with Participatory Budgeting. Montréal/New York/London: Black Rose Books.
Cabannes, Y. & Lipietz, B. 2018. Revisiting the Democratic Promise of Participatory Budgeting in Light of Competing Political, Good Governance and Technocratic Logics. Environment and Urbanization, 30, 1–18.
Campbell, M., Escobar, O., Fenton, C. & Craig, P. 2018. The Impact of Participatory Budgeting on Health and Wellbeing: A Sco** Review of Evaluations. BMC Public Health, 18, 822.
Dalton, R. J. 2017. The Participation Gap: Social Status and Political Inequality. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
DCLG 2011. Communities in the Driving Seat: A Study of Participatory Budgeting in England. London: Department for Communities and Local Government.
De Sousa Santos, B. 1998. Participatory Budgeting in Porto Alegre: Toward a Redistributive Democracy. Politics and Society, 26, 461–510.
Dias, N. (ed.) 2018. Hope for Democracy: 30 Years of Participatory Budgeting Worldwide. Faro, Portugal, Epopeia Records and Oficina.
Dias, N., Enriquez, S. & Julio, S. 2019. Participatory Budgeting World Atlas 2019. Portugal: Epopeia and Oficina.
Dias, N. & Julio, S. 2018. The Next Thirty Years of Participatory Budgeting in the World Start Today. In: Dias, N. (ed.) Hope for Democracy: 30 Years of Participatory Budgeting Worldwide. Faro, Portugal: Epopeia Records and Oficina.
Elstub, S. & Escobar, O. 2019. Defining and Typologising Democratic Innovations. In: Elstub, S. & Escobar, O. (eds.) The Handbook of Democratic Innovation and Governance. Cheltenham, UK; Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar.
Escobar, O. 2017. Pluralism and Democratic Participation: What Kind of Citizen are Citizens Invited to Be? Contemporary Pragmatism, 14, 416–438.
Escobar, O. 2019. Facilitators: The Micropolitics of Public Participation and Deliberation. In: Elstub, S. & Escobar, O. (eds.) The Handbook of Democratic Innovation and Governance. Cheltenham, UK; Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar.
Escobar, O. & Elstub, S. 2017. Forms of Mini-Publics: An Introduction to Deliberative Innovations in Democratic Practice. Research and Development Note 4, newDemocracy Foundation, Open Access: https://www.newdemocracy.com.au/research/research-notes/399-forms-of-mini-publics.
Escobar, O. & Elstub, S. 2019. The Field of Democratic Innovation. In: Elstub, S. & Escobar, O. (eds.) The Handbook of Democratic Innovation and Governance. Cheltenham, UK; Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar.
Escobar, O., Garven, F., Harkins, C., Glazik, K., Cameron, S. & Stoddart, A. 2018. Participatory Budgeting in Scotland: The Interplay of Public Service Reform, Community Empowerment and Social Justice. In: Dias, N. (ed.) Hope for Democracy: 30 Years of Participatory Budgeting Worldwide. Vila Ruiva, Cuba; Faro, Portugal: Epopeia Records & Oficina.
Freeman, R. 2009. What is ‘Translation’? Evidence & Policy: A Journal of Research, Debate and Practice, 5, 429–447.
Ganuza, E. & Baiocchi, G. 2012. The Power of Ambiguity: How Participatory Budgeting Travels the Globe. Journal of Public Deliberation, 8, Article 8.
Ganuza, E. & Baiocchi, G. 2019. The Long Journey of Participatory Budgeting. In: Elstub, S. & Escobar, O. (eds.) The Handbook of Democratic Innovation and Governance. Cheltenham, UK; Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar.
Glasgow Disability Alliance 2018. Budgeting for Equality. Glasgow.
Goldfrank, B. & Landes, K. 2018. Participatory Budgeting in Canada and the United States. In: Dias, N. (ed.) Hope for Democracy: 30 Years of Participatory Budgeting Worldwide. Faro, Portugal: Epopeia Records and Oficina.
Gonçalves, S. 2014. The Effects of Participatory Budgeting on Municipal Expenditures and Infant Mortality in Brazil. World Development, 53, 94.
Harkins, C. 2019. An Evaluation of Glasgow City Participatory Budgeting Pilot Wards 2018/19. Glasgow: Glasgow Centre for Population Health.
Harkins, C. & Escobar, O. 2015. Participatory Budgeting in Scotland: An Overview of Strategic Design Choices and Principles for Effective Delivery. Glasgow: Glasgow Centre for Population Health and What Works Scotland.
Harkins, C., Moore, K. & Escobar, O. 2016. Review of 1st Generation Participatory Budgeting in Scotland. Edinburgh: What Works Scotland.
Hayduk, R., Hackett, K. & Tamashiro Folla, D. 2017. Immigrant Engagement in Participatory Budgeting in New York City. New Political Science, 39, 76–94.
Lightbody, R. 2017. ‘Hard to Reach’ or ‘Easy to Ignore’? Promoting Equality in Community Engagement. Edinburgh: What Works Scotland.
Loeffler, E. 2016. Co-production of Public Services and Outcomes. In: Bovaird, T. & Loeffler, E. (eds.) Public Management and Governance. 3rd ed. London and New York: Routledge.
Loeffler, E. & Bovaird, T. 2016. User and Community Co-production of Public Services: What Does the Evidence Tell Us? International Journal of Public Administration, 39, 1006–1019.
Marquetti, A., Schonerwald Da Silva, C. E. & Campbell, A. 2012. Participatory Economic Democracy in Action: Participatory Budgeting in Porto Alegre, 1989–2004. Review of Radical Political Economics, 44, 62–81.
Mcnulty, S. 2018. Mandating PB: Evaluating Fifteen Years of Peru’s National Participatory Budgeting Law. In: Dias, N. (ed.) Hope for Democracy: 30 Years of Participatory Budgeting Worldwide. Faro, Portugal: Epopeia Records and Oficina.
Newman, J. 2014. Landscapes of Antagonism: Local Governance, Neoliberalism and Austerity. Urban Studies, 51, 3290–3305.
O’Hagan, A., Hill-O’connor, C., Macrae, C. & Teedon, P. 2019. Research Findings—Evaluation of Participatory Budgeting Activity in Scotland 2016–2018. Scottish Government Social Research.
PB Partners 2016. Grant Making Through Participatory Budgeting: A ‘How to’ Guide for Community Led Organisations and Community Engagement Workers. The Scottish Government.
Porto De Oliveira, O. 2017. International Policy Diffusion and Participatory Budgeting: Ambassadors of Participation, International Institutions and Transnational Networks. Cham, Springer International Publishing & Palgrave Macmillan.
Rocke, A. 2014. Framing Citizen Participation: Participatory Budgeting in France, Germany and the United Kingdom. London, Palgrave.
Rumbul, R., Parsons, A. & Bramley, J. 2018. Participatory Budgeting: A Meta-Level Review. MySociety.
Shulga, I. & Vagin, V. 2018. Develo** Participatory Budgeting in Russia. In: Dias, N. (ed.) Hope for Democracy: 30 Years of Participatory Budgeting Worldwide. Faro, Portugal: Epopeia Records and Oficina.
Sintomer, Y., Röcke, A. & Herzberg, C. 2016. Participatory Budgeting in Europe: Democracy and Public Governance. London; New York, Routledge.
Talpin, J. 2011. Schools of Democracy: How Ordinary Citizens (Sometimes) Become Competent in Participatory Budgeting Institutions. Colchester, ECPR Press.
Touchton, M. & Wampler, B. 2014. Improving Social Well-Being Through New Democratic Institutions. Comparative Political Studies, 47, 1442–1469.
Wampler, B. 2007. Participatory Budgeting in Brazil: Contestation, Cooperation, and Accountability. University Park, PA, Pennsylvania State University Press.
Wampler, B., Mcnulty, S. & Touchton, M. 2018. The Global Spread and Transformation of Participatory Budgeting. In: Dias, N. (ed.) Hope for Democracy: 30 Years of Participatory Budgeting Worldwide. Faro, Portugal: Epopeia Records and Oficina.
World Bank 2003. Case study 2—Porto Alegre, Brazil: Participatory Approaches in Budgeting and Public Expenditure Management. Social Development Notes; no. 71. Washington, DC.
Yu-Ze Wan, P. 2018. Multiple Paths in Search of the Public: Participatory Budgeting in Taiwan. In: Dias, N. (ed.) Hope for Democracy: 30 Years of Participatory Budgeting Worldwide. Faro, Portugal: Epopeia Records and Oficina.
Acknowledgements
I thank Chris Harkins, Evelyn O’Donnell, Coryn Barclay, Fiona Garven, David Reilly, Kathleen Glazik, Richard Brunner, Jez Hall, Ernesto Ganuza and Giovanni Allegretti for their insights and collaboration. I am indebted to the PB Scotland Network, the PB Working Group, and practitioners across the UK and globally—the feedback loop between research and practice is strong in the PB field, which bodes well for democratic innovation. Finally, my research was supported by What Works Scotland and I thank all researchers and practitioners involved, and our funders: the Scottish Government and the UK Economic and Social Research Council (Grant ES/M003922/1).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Escobar, O. (2021). Transforming Lives, Communities and Systems? Co-production Through Participatory Budgeting. In: Loeffler, E., Bovaird, T. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Co-Production of Public Services and Outcomes. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53705-0_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53705-0_15
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-53704-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-53705-0
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)