The intent of this article is to reflect on the notion of empowered participatory governance in order to gain a better understanding of the institutional contexts and parameters that encourage a more participative democracy, and thereby bring to light the political mechanisms that contribute to broadening the decision-making process. The example we consider is the Montreal Participative Budget (PB). We focus on the impact of decentralization, more specifically on the form this took as the Montreal PB was being elaborated. We examine how much decentralization circumscribes the PB process. The Montreal Participative Budget provides an illustration of the emergence of a participative level in a political context that is, on the whole, hostile to participatory decision making. We suggest that the PB in this context benefits from a new window of opportunity. The chosen example has a dual significance: it underlines the role of temporal contingencies and scales of the process of decentralization in the participative structures at the local level, and it enables us to gain a better grasp of the problem of institutional architectures in implementing participatory democracy by emphasizing the political and social realities underlying new loci for decision making.
Participatory democracy, decentralization and empowered participatory governanceCreating participatory democracy implies decentralization, which is both a particular feature of democracy and a process in its own right. Indeed, it appears difficult to activate citizen participation and expand citizens' decision-making capacity without devolving powers to the level at which citizens can effectively influence issues. Moreover, as a project and specific democratic arrangement, participatory democracy has a particular appeal within the contemporary context of increasing multilevel governance. 1 One of the consequences of this type of governance, which is marked by the proliferation andWe are grateful to the three IJURR reviewers for their insightful comments. 1 The term 'multilevel governance' is polysemic; its meaning depends on which field in the literature you are considering. We will be using it to underline both the proliferation and interlocking of levels of government at the local level (a result of, inter alia, processes of decentralization) and the integration of new actors into a system of decision making that henceforth will be less hierarchical and based more on cooperation (Hooghe and Marks, 2003).
A deteriorating economic scenario, a critical mass of unmarried female heads of households, and the institutionalization of the São Paulo housing movement in the 2000s contributed to women’s taking on a new public role within the movement. The strong presence of women at different levels of this social movement was a necessary but not determining factor in generating public awareness about gender-differentiated needs and claims for access to housing. Female leadership and a strategic alliance with the women’s movement and with nongovernmental organizations and local elected officials contributed to the development of gender-specific public housing policies. O cenário de deterioração econômica, a massa crítica de mulheres solteiras na qualidade de chefes de família, bem como a institucionalização do movimento por moradia em São Paulo no início deste século contribuíram para que as mulheres desempenhassem um novo papel nessa ação. A forte presença de mulheres em diferentes esferas desse movimento social foi um fator necessário, embora não determinante, para gerar consciência social sobre o acesso à moradia baseado em diferenças de gênero. A liderança feminina e a aliança estratégica do movimento das mulheres, além da participação de organizações não-governamentais e de políticos eleitos, auxiliaram no desenvolvimento de políticas públicas para moradias com base na especificidade de gênero.
Movimento popular urbano e mulheres no Brasil: uma experiência de feminização das políticas públicas de habitação Women in the Brazilian Urban Popular Movement: the experience of feminization of housing public policy Resumo Este artigo vai abordar a mutação do movimento por moradia, permeado pela presença significativa de mulheres em sua base e liderança, e mostrar até que ponto esse processo contribui para a elaboração das políticas públicas habitacionais. Esta pesquisa ilustra como a tomada de consciência da questão de gênero coopera para mudanças nas políticas públicas de moradia. A partir dos exemplos de São Paulo e Rio de Janeiro, é possível saber de que forma uma estratégia de aliança entre organizações populares de tipo classista, grupos feministas e representantes eleitos progressistas contribui para a adoção de políticas públicas que levem em conta as condições de vida e especificidades das mulheres, assim como trazer à lume a influência que os movimentos sociais podem ter nas políticas públicas, colaborando para as transformações institucionais em matéria de políticas e ações públicas.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.