Citizenship knowledge acquisition in local governments: The participatory budgeting process

Abstract

The participatory budget of Brazilian municipalities is one of the most publicized examples of democracy-in-action that fosters citizenship knowledge acquisition in the public sector. The seminal successful experiment was enacted in the end of the 1990s from the process first implemented in needy barrios (i.e. neighborhoods), often slums, in the city of Porto Alegre. This research adds two new perspectives to the participatory process. The first one demonstrates how knowledge is managed and conveyed and, most importantly, why it is shared. In the participatory budget, citizens learn, what critical theory call, to emancipate. They act as if they were members of an ideal kingdom of ends in which they were both subjects and sovereigns at the same time which guarantees citizenship engagement, learning and development. We call this first perspective, the knowledge acquisition process. At second, we place the change, or advancement of the public service. Public servants often labelled negatively 'technocrats' become facilitators of citizens' knowledge acquisition. Servants use their expertise and experiences to add information to the decision-making process made by and for the citizens. Public service redefines its meaning which becomes related to social change, viz. citizenship participation and deliberation, and wealth redistribution. In this qualitative research, our methodological bricolage relies on the triangulation of methods (i.e. documentation review and observations of behaviors and procedures; in-depth-interviews; and, focus groups) and sources (i.e. comparison of cases). The bricolage deconstructs these social actions on their constituents, viz. hidden intentions; plans and instruments; and, implementation.