|
Most of the
Participatory Budgeting Processes in Spain, have a strong emphasis on
“autoreglamiento” – a process in which the set of rules of the PB are
written by the participants themselves. Often the first step in
initiating a PB is an extended process of autoreglamiento, in which city
residents plan the initial rules and structure of the PB.
Many Spanish
municipalities with PB are now trying to find ways to coordinate annual
PB processes with medium and long-term strategic planning.
In Sevilla, the largest
European city with a PB, the budget assemblies are generally organized
autonomously by “grupos motores” (motor groups): local residents that
are particularly enthusiastic about the process. During the election of
budget delegates in assemblies, each person votes for 2 women and 2 men,
to promote gender equity.
In the small Spanish
town of Las Cabezas de San Juan, organizers used some very creative and
provocative imagery to inspire people to participate in the PB. The
process was called “El Reparto” (“the divvying up”), and posters
portrayed different animals partitioned to be carved up. This imagery is
aimed to bring the PB to the level and language of everyday life, to
better provoke people and get them to associate with the process.
In Palomares del Rio,
another small Spanish town, these same organizers inspired residents to
do a needs assessment and discuss local problems by making a telenovela
(TV soap opera). The residents picked a different town problem for each
episode, and then filmed the telenovela focusing on this problem, in
typical soap opera style. The telenovela was aired on TV and generated
much publicity, while mobilizing residents to get involved in town
planning, and have fun at the same time!
Sevilla and Córdoba
have active youth PBs, with 4,000 youth participating in Córdoba and
5-6,000 in Sevilla.
GERMANY
The Berlin district of
Lichtenberg (260,000 inhabitants) launched PB in 2006, after a 5 year
process of preparation. The PB decided 30 million of the 500 million
Euros total budget. Not surprisingly, the process is rather technical
and rational, and focused on the administrative system since there is
little community self-organization. The district solicits budget
proposals through 3 forums: Open Councils (assemblies), the Internet,
and a random survey of 10,000 residents. Each proposal then has to find
at least 5 people to endorse it before it can be assessed. It is then
assessed by an evaluation workgroup composed of 12 elected citizens. If
it passes the evaluation, it is then sent to the district parliament for
approval. In 2006, 367 projects were evaluated and 42 of those moved on
to the parliament. One challenge is how to bridge the gap between
proposal submission and evaluation, since it was not always clear how
projects were evaluated.
(Daniel
Tietze, District of Lichtenberg)
ITALY
In Italy,
most PBs start with focus groups and surveys to define the rules, then
have an experimental phase, at the end of which the rules are approved.
The PBs are generally driven by leftist parties and emerge as a result
of top-down electoral priorities. Most of the processes are in
peripheral edge cities, outside of larger metropolises
|
