PARTICIPATORY BUDGETING: A META-LEVEL REVIEW

Much  has  been  written  about  participatory  budgeting  over  the  last  30  years.  From  humble beginnings in Brazil, it has swept over the globe and is considered by many institutions and governments  to  be  an  ideal  method  of  tangibly  engaging  citizens  in  the  operation  of  their  communities. It has, however, developed beyond the original Porto Alegre model, and the evolution, exportation into different cultural landscapes, and digitisation of the model have posed new challenges for implementers, innovators and supporters. This report, conducted primarily for the Hewlett  Foundation  with the involvement of the Omidyar Network,  examines  some  of those  challenges. The research was conducted from a meta-level perspective, seeking not to replicate the  many  excellent  case-studies  on  individual  instances  of  participatory  budgeting, and instead  identifying where additional support for participatory budgeting could be targeted to benefit the community of practice as a whole.

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