With the participatory budget, citizens propose and define how to spend part of the public money.
Participatory budgeting is a system that allows the direct participation of the population when deciding how public money or part of it will be spent . To understand the meaning of this concept, it is necessary, first of all, to determine the etymological origin of the words that give it shape:
- Budget derives from Latin, more specifically from the sum of the prefix pre- (which means "before" ) and suppositus (which can be translated as "placed below" ).
- Participatory , on the other hand, also comes from Latin and is made up of three delimited components: par , which is equivalent to "part" ; the verb capere , meaning "to take" ; and the suffix -tive , which is used to indicate a passive or active relationship.
What is participatory budgeting
The document that is prepared with the forecasts of income and expenses for a certain period is known as a budget . What a budget does is indicate what amount of money you expect to spend and what amount you expect to receive, which allows you to plan financial decisions.
The adjective participatory , for its part, is associated with participation (the fact of getting involved in something).
Before moving forward with the definition of a participatory budget , we must know what a public budget is. This is the document that estimates the expenses that the state power will carry out in a specific period. Generally, the public budget is prepared by the Executive Branch and approved by Congress .
If citizens intervene in the spending decision of said budget, it is classified as participatory .
Participatory budgeting is a democratic tool.
Your advantages
There are those who constantly advocate that participatory budgets be carried out since they consider that they bring with them a significant number of advantages, among which we would highlight the following:
- They are synonymous with transparency , since each citizen knows how their tax money is spent.
- They allow neighbors to have control of what happens in their municipality.
- They are a tool for citizen participation , which offers local individuals the power to actively collaborate in both planning and public management .
- No less important is that participatory budgets are considered by many politicians as an instrument of modernization and adaptation to the times in which we live. Without overlooking that, in the same way, they come to mean a democratization of public management.
The municipal participatory budget
Typically, a participatory budget is developed at the municipal level . The local Executive Branch summons residents to various consultation and debate bodies, from which proposals arise that are put to a vote . The projects with the most votes, in this way, become priorities within the public budget of the municipality in question.
It is important to keep in mind that a participatory budget does not contemplate all municipal spending nor does it imply that citizens will directly decide government actions. A certain percentage or amount of the total budget is usually allocated to popular voting so that the neighbors are the ones who choose some of the works to be developed.