The Redistribution of Representation through Participation: Participatory Budgeting in Chengdu and Delhi

Abstract

A strong contention of the “representative turn” is that representation is consubstantial with politics (Saward, 2010). One way to test the heuristic value of this vision is to look for representation in an institution that was historically built against representation, namely participatory budgeting (PB), a democratic innovation that has spread globally with exceptional rapidity. The literature on PB identifies two types of relationships between participation and representation: (i) participation “challenges” (Houtzager & Gurza Lavalle, 2009) existing forms and principles of representation (through “assumed representation” by civil society activists; or through “citizen agents”; Montambeault, 2016); or (ii) participation is “instrumentalised” (Fischer, 2012) by classic forms and actors of representation. On the basis of a comparative analysis of PB experiences in Chengdu (China) and Delhi (India), we argue in this article that a third type of relationship can be observed: participation—as implemented through PB—can also redistribute representation insofar as new, official representative roles are created. Moreover, looking at these new roles provides important clues about the principles of representation that are implemented and therefore about the transformative nature of PB.

Serving Multiple Masters? Public Managers’ Role Perceptions in Participatory Budgeting

“…In these processes, managers are expected to simultaneously realize local politicians' policy programs, implement residents' spending proposals, and enforce administrative norms of professionalism and expertise. It is the task of public managers to implement participatory budgeting practices in a way that satisfies the interest of all participants involved in the process (Eckerd & Heidelberg, 2019;Frenkiel & Lama-Rewal, 2019;Zhang & Liao, 2011). In short, in participatory budgeting public managers serve multiple masters.…”

Factors Of Uneven Development Of Participatory Budgeting In Russia

“…This FRI Center is an information pool that consolidates the results of surveys and polls from the regions of Russia and the quantitative development indices of PB practices. However, the majority of the research works deal with the description of PB practices in various regions (Frenkiel & Lama-Rewal, 2019;Zakharchuk et al, 2019…”

Rethinking Representation: Representative Claims in Global Perspective

“…Based on their comparative study of participatory budgeting in Chengdu (China) and Delhi (India), Frenkiel and Tawa Lama-Rewal (2019) propose a redistributive relationship that challenges two existing relationships between representation and participation. The article demonstrates the transformative role of participatory budgeting, which through participation constitutes new representative roles.…”