Participatory Governance Maureen Donaghy Assistant Professor Departments of Political Science and Public Policy and Administration Rutgers University, Camden Presentation to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee July 7, 2016

What is Participatory Governance?  Governance – the process of governing, defined by who makes the decisions  Participatory governance – involving citizens and civil society organizations in decision making  Complement to elections – how else can citizens be involved in decision making?  Adopted by city, state, and national level governments  Promoted by international NGOs, the UN, World Bank

Why has participatory governance been so popular in Latin America?  Democratic institutions still developing post-authoritarian regimes  As a region, LA suffers from the highest level of inequality in the world  Known for the practice of clientelism, weak accountability mechanisms, unequal access to the rights of citizenship  Left wave from the late 1990s to the 2000’s

What does participatory governance look like?  Planning processes with community groups and government officials  Budgeting processes  Participatory councils – at various levels of government; inclusion of civil society, government officials, and private sector  National or Local Conferences – agenda setting

What Challenges Can Participatory Governance Address?  Transparency – increasing access to information  Responsiveness – direct input into problems and solutions  Accountability – monitoring, public scrutiny reduces corruption

Theoretical Impact  On Citizens themselves – empowerment, understanding on rights as well as capacity of government, building social capital  Services and programs – better targeted to needs, more responsive to needs (i.e. healthcare, education, housing, infrastructure), better monitoring  On government officials – more open to sharing control  On poverty and inequality – programs that reach the poor, political power  Note: Impact can be difficult, but not impossible, to measure.

Challenges to Participatory Governance  Generating participation among diverse groups  Persuading officials to cede power and resources  Co-optation in the process  Donor-driven or federal-driven initiatives without local support

How can participatory institutions be more effective?  Rules that allow for true deliberation  Significant allocation of resources to incentivize participation and legitimize the process  Organizations with the capacity to push for implementation  Ideologically inclined administration  Need long-term commitment

Examples of Participatory Institutions in Brazil Part 2

Why Brazil?  Constitution of 1988 established social and economic rights  Workers’ Party emerged in the 1980s  Long history of corruption and clientelism  Highly urban; decentralized governance

Housing in Brazil Housing deficit somewhere around 20 million homes Types of housing programs: urbanization, regularization, constructing new units (like public housing), construction materials

Participatory Councils: Housing in Brazil  Municipal level councils deliberate on policies, program implementation, and resources  Mandated by the federal level to receive certain funding, but institutional rules made at the local level  Generally include members from civil society, government, and private sector  Need to civil society to counteract the weight of the construction and real estate companies for land and resources.

Impact of Housing Councils  Survey data from all of Brazil’s 5,564 municipalities  Asked whether municipalities with councils were more likely to adopt housing programs.  Findings: councils associated with 3-11% greater likelihood of program adoption  Density of civil society not significantly related.  Conclusion: Housing councils matter  Other forms of activism still important: occupations, negotiation, advocacy

Participatory Budgeting in Porto Alegre, Brazil  City in the South of Brazil, 1.3 million residents  Established by a Workers’ Party mayor in 1989, over 40,000 people participated  Twice-yearly regional plenary assemblies feed all-city meeting to vote on budget proposals, series of discussions before the vote  Impact on health - increase in sewage and water connections by 75% in first 10 years

What was the PB process like in practice?  Beyond Elections Beyond Elections  How do the residents in the film express the benefits of PB?  What projects did they attribute to PB?  BUT – What happened after the Workers’ Party (PT) lost the election in 2004?  What does this case tell us about the fragility of participatory governance?

Transfer of Participatory Budgeting  Participatory Budgeting in NYC Participatory Budgeting in NYC

Questions  What factors might sustain the participatory budgeting process over time?  What are the positive benefits of citizen participation in formulating the budget, and what might be some concerns?  Could PB decrease cynicism of democracy in the US today?

A word about Rio as you watch the Olympics…  Rio has participatory institutions, but they do not function effectively.  Lack of buy-in from both government and civil society  Case of Vila Autódromo next to main Olympic Park –  over 500 families evicted from homes  long-term resistance led to market-rate indemnity payments, nearby public housing, and finally urbanization for remaining 20 families  No participatory approach, relied on the public defender and global media  Would participatory governance have helped in this situation?

Conclusions  Participatory governance can address challenges of representative democracy, by promoting transparency, responsiveness, and accountability  Particularly important in Latin America where democratic institutions are historically weak and inequality is high  Two examples of participatory governance institutions – budgeting processes and housing councils – demonstrate positive impact