Testing the Empowerment Thesis: The Participatory Budget in Belo Horizonte and Betim, Brazil

• Published in: Comparative politics Vol. 34; no. 2; pp. 127 - 145
• Main Author: Nylen, William R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New Brunswick City University of New York 01-01-2002; Transaction Inc
• Subjects: Brazil; Budgets; City councils; Civics; Civil society; Comparative politics; Democracy; Empowerment; Personal empowerment; Political activism; Political Behavior; Political Change; Political Participation; Political parties; Political power; Political science; Political systems; Political theory; Preoperative period; Reform; Representative democracy; Voting; Brazil
• ISSN: 0010-4159; 2151-6227
• DOI: 10.2307/4146934

Many argue that participatory democratic reforms can reverse trends toward civic disengagement. According to the empowerment thesis, participation in one political arena will spill over into organized civil society and/or party politics. Two examples of the municipal participatory budget process in Brazil suggest, however, that participatory reforms engage the already active, not the disengaged. Still, participation in neighborhood organizations increased broadly, and participants were overwhelmingly popular and nonelite. Thus, these examples support a qualified empowerment thesis. Participatory reforms can empower a significant number of disengaged citizens in neighborhood organizations, and they can keep a significant number of existing nonelite activists engaged in democratic politics, thereby assuring continued or greater democratic pluralism and representation.