The cost of participation: An analysis of the financial dimensions of participatory budgets in Portugal

Abstract

Participatory budgeting (PB) is a democratic innovation that allows citizens to deliberate about a share of the public budget. Portugal was one of the most influent countries in this field in the last decade, as PB was implemented at multiple levels. However, few studies have made in‐depth research on the financial dimensions of PB, which raises interest as to whether and how citizens' voice has had a significant impact on policy‐making. To fill in this gap, this article considers the financial asset of local, regional, and national PBs in Portugal up to the disruption of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Our methodological approach relies on both quantitative data analyzed through Geographical Information Systems and descriptive statistics, and qualitative data retrieved from document analysis. Findings are discussed through four different stages of dissemination in the country, and show that despite significant advancements in this field, impacts in the financial dimensions lay behind expectations.

Discourses and bottom‐up policymaking in Europe and the EU

“…While the importance of multilevel top-down policy processes cannot be neglected, the last contribution in this issue sheds light on the equally important bottom-up initiatives of policymaking. Using a mixed-methods approach, Bogo and Falanga (2024) explore the dissemination and financial dimension of participatory budgeting (PB) in Portugal, that is, citizen-centered collective decision making on public budget (Bartocci et al, 2022). The authors show how (mostly local) PBs have increased throughout Portugal in four waves after their introduction in 2002.…”