National Participatory Budget in Portugal – Reviving the Citizenry Trust in Government
| Case Code: BENV050 Case Length: 13 Pages Period: 2006-2017 Pub Date: 2024 Teaching Note: Available |
Price: Rs.400 Organization: - Industry: - Countries: Portugal Themes: Government Policies, Public-Private Partnerships |
Abstract Case Intro 1 Case Intro 2 Excerpts
Excerpts
Portugal
Portugal occupies an area of 92,212 square kilometers. It is divided into 18 districts (278 municipalities) and 2 autonomous regions (Madeira 11 municipalities and Azores 19 municipalities). The population was 10.28 million as of 2020. The GDP per capita was US$ 22,439 as of 2021.
Four decades of dictatorship in Portugal came to an end after a coup against the regime and a civil resistance campaign called the Carnation Revolution in 1974. This brought in the national constitution in 1976. The constitution specified the principles of Participatory democracy.
City of Cascais
One example of the PB being highly successful was in the city of Cascais, a municipality that is a part of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area. It consisted of 4 parishes and had a population of 206,000 in 2012.
Cascais started implementing Agenda XXI in 2006. This led to a proposal for starting Participatory Budgets in 2010 at a town hall (the seat of the local government) meeting. The main aim was to promote active citizenship, strengthen areas of participation, and bring in dialogue mechanisms among the citizens of Cascais..
Modus Operandi
The PB process went on for almost 10 months every year, from preparation to finalization of the projects. Between January and April every year, in the preparatory stage, the proposals that were accepted and put in place in the previous years were evaluated to see to what extent they had been successful and what changes could be made in them. At this stage, the local people, the technical team that had implemented the proposal, and those in the municipality who implemented it were involved along with external assessors..
Campaigning and Public Voting
In the public voting stage, participants could decide on the public investments that Cascais Town Hall would make over the next few years. All the final projects put up for voting were given identification..
Budget Approval
The results were announced at a public ceremony in which all the citizens could participate. Before the announcement of results, the authorities presented the progress of participatory budget projects that were initiated during the previous year, and also gave some facts about how the projects, carried out over the years, had made an impact on the community..
The National Participatory Budget
In 2011, the Portuguese government agreed to bailout and austerity measures with international lenders like the IMF, the European Central Bank, and the European Commission. The country emerged out of a financial crisis in 2014 and exited the bailout. There was a need felt to rebuild citizens’ confidence in the government, and to show that the democratic institutions cared for the people and responded to their needs. ..
Participatory Budgeting in Lisbon
Portugal became the world’s first country to have a participatory budget on a national scale.. Fonseca was given the responsibility of implementing the NPB in the country. She said NPB would help to “build trust between people and the institutions of democracy.”..
Implementing NBP
Fonseca started off the NPB in 2017 with a focus on the areas of culture, agriculture, science, and adult training. Two more PBs were implemented at the national level. The first was for youth with a budget of €300,000. This was coordinated by the State Secretary of Youth and Sport. Its main aim was to engage people between 14 and 30 years of age. The second PB was for public primary and high schools and was coordinated by the Institute for Financial Management of Education and General Direction of Schools. Each of the PBs was given different logos..
The Next Step
Observers said that one thing that was remarkable about participatory budgets was was the way they were adapted to different places around the world. As the PB moved from one country to another it was tweaked to accommodate different political, administrative, and social cultures. Wherever it was implemented, it encompassed different objectives, methods, and approaches..
Buy this case study (Please select any one of the payment options)
| Price: Rs.400 |
Price: Rs.400 | PayPal (9 USD) |
