What's Next for Porto Alegre?
By Denise Vitale

One main question that arises with the recent victory of a center-right wing administration of the City of Porto Alegre (Brazil) is whether and how its world renowned process of "Participatory Budgeting" will continue in this city of one million inhabitants. After 16 years of Worker's Party rule, the election of the new mayor, José Fogaça, a conservative politician, raises the question of whether he will support this process, change it or ignore it.

During the electoral campaign, Fogaça stated that, if elected, he would honor the Participatory Budgeting process, but that he wanted to "improve it." Although it is much too early to evaluate his promise in his first three months in office, there is no immediate indication of any drastic change.

Implemented during the first administration of Worker's Party in Porto Alegre (1989-92), the Participatory Budgeting has become a remarkable, acclaimed and widely duplicated practice of direct citizen participation to allocate certain public expenditures. Through this process, Porto Alegre residents debate urban problems and select specific investments in infrastructure and public services that must be executed by City Hall.

The cycle of citizen input begins in March, when the Mayor's office presents information about investments that occurred in the prior year and introduces a Plan of Investments for the current year. New citizen assemblies then are convened from April to July, when citizens are supposed to deliberate about priorities for their neighborhoods and also elect delegates and councilors to the Participatory Budgeting Council which conveys the citizens' demands to the Mayor.

Until now, mayor Fogaça maintained this same model and did not introduce any structural change. However, there are fears that subtle alterations are already occurring that will eventually weaken the integrity and efficiency of the process. Although in the first assemblies of this year the government's staff has presented the information about the execution of demands of the prior year, some citizen councilors complain the data are not consistent. What is more, the tempo of the execution of citizen demands has slowed and Fogaça has tried to convince delegates and councilors to interrupt the process of selecting new priorities in this year in order to reduce the amount of public investment in services and infra-structure.

This context of doubt and insecurity reveals a crucial question, that of the autonomy of this direct citizen empowerment process in the face of the traditional representative bodies. Although the principle of "participatory budgetary administration" is determined by Brazilian federal law (City's Statute), as well as by Porto Alegre local law, the main rules of the process such as which are the deliberative levels, who can vote etc. are not established by law. They are determined by an Internal Regiment, defined by the participants, not formal state law.

Thus, ultimately, the impact of the Participatory Budgeting process depends a lot on the political will of the mayor. Although he is supposed to respect the autonomy of the participatory bodies (direct assemblies and Participatory Budgeting Council), accept and execute their decisions, he is not legally bound to enforce these popular decisions. In addition, the very nature of the process (decision of the public budget), requires some actions that only the Executive can promote, such as providing accurate and timely information, as well as essential technical and logistical support.

There are indications, however, that this mayor will slowly erode these preconditions for success.
After all, this new political team has been traditionally against this practice. The vice mayor Eliseu Felippe Santos openly combated the Participatory Budgeting when he was the opposition to the Worker's Party during the electoral campaign. The current urban planning secretary Isaac Ainhorn proposed, while a member of the City Council, a law that would limit the effect of participatory decisions to merely 50% of the budgetary expenditures, reducing the level of openness for popular deliberation in the public budget. The lack of commitment of some of the new city officials becomes even clear since they are not taking part in the meetings and are not debating projects within certain parts of the city.

The distrust about the political will of the new mayor of Porto Alegre in promoting the Participatory Budgeting runs parallel to the administration of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Although the current governor, Germano Rigotto, had also defended the continuity of the process during his electoral campaign, one of the first measures he took after being elected was the extinction of the practice in the state level. The Participatory Budgeting was substituted by a different methodology characterized by indirect popular "consultation". This initiative was supported by the parties of Fogaça and Santos, which voted against Participatory Budgeting at the state level in the Legislative Assembly in 2003.

There is some basis for suspicion that Fogaça has a different agenda, a program based on partnerships with private sector and voluntary associations to execute social and public policies. In practice, this will become a transference of resources and responsibilities from the State to the private sector. The main doubt is how the policies of public investments and redistribution of resources, the very cornerstone of Participatory Budgeting, can be compatible with patterns of private management.

On the other hand, perhaps the sixteen years of successful practice of Participatory Budgeting in Porto Alegre can make a difference and guarantee the continuity and maintenance of the basic principles of the process, despite a political context not so favorable to participatory democracy. Popular mobilization is a key element for it. The organization of local "Popular Councils" that are occurring in some regions of Porto Alegre are a first step for strengthening civil society's power in opposition to a conservative, pro-business regime.

These new sources of citizen power can pressure Fogaça's administration to keep the practice of direct participation in the public policies of the city alive. How and to what extent the practice of Participatory Budgeting, deep-rooted in the political cultural of the city, will fare against a political establishment that does not include popular participation as one of its principal aims, only time will tell. And this will certainly be a great test for the experience of Participatory Budgeting in the future of Porto Alegre.

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