North America

The development of Participatory Budgeting in the North American continent involves different speeds in the three countries that form it. Canada and Mexico have expressed countless hesitations, with progress and setbacks in promoting this type of initiative. The growth witnessed in the last decade is mainly due to the leading role of the United States, which concentrates around 81% of PB in the region. According to the data collected, North America currently has 178 Participatory Budgeting cases, which represent approximately 1.5% of the total number of PB in the world.

1. The main highlight goes to the United States, whose PB emerging may be considered late, as the first initiatives date from 2009. Even so, over the last decade these processes have been growing, with 145 cases this year;
2. ​​The first PB experience in the region was in Canada, a country that has, however, expressed strong resistance to the adoption of this type of initiative, and there is even stagnation at present;
3. Mexico is struggling with a weak willingness of its municipal institutions to implement PB and weak citizen engagement. In recent years, however, there has been a slight increase in the number of active cases in the country. Some Mexican states have created their own legislation on participation, and in certain cases, Participatory Budgeting is envisaged, which allows raising expectations for the future of these processes.

The region's distinguishing feature goes to the United States, as it is one of the few countries in the world where PB promoted by local governments are a minority on the national scene, accounting for 48% of the total number of registered cases. Most of the current experiences, i.e. 52%, are developed by schools, and this number is expected to grow in the near future.

Taking as a parameter of analysis the four international indexes used in this Atlas, it is concluded that:​

1. Around 92% of PB in the region are concentrated in states with imperfect democracies, notably in the United States and Mexico; the remaining 8% are Canadian PB, located in a fully-fledged democracy;
2. Approximately 81 percent of PB are headquartered in the United States, the country with the second lowest level of corruption. PB located in Canada are part of the group with the lowest level of corruption; the remaining 10% are Mexican PB, which are part of a country with the second highest level of corruption;
3. Removing the PB identified in Mexico, located in territory with a high level of human development, the remaining 90% are based in countries with the highest parameter of the index under consideration;
4. All North American PB are promoted in countries classified with the highest level in the happiness ranking.

Based on the asymmetric context of the three countries that make up the region, this atlas considers that the majority of US processes, located in the United States, focus mainly on Participatory Budgeting as an instrument to promote equity in access to decision-making processes, to strengthen the power of citizens vis-à-vis institutions and of inclusion of the most excluded groups.