Portugal
Local Government
122
Large Cities
0
Capital Cities
2
Regional or State Governments
2
National Government
2
Other Institutions
1540
Local Government
122
Large Cities
0
Capital Cities
2
Regional or State Governments
2
National Government
2
Other Institutions
1540
Community
Capital
Lisbon
Population
10 269 420
Language
Portuguese
Currency
Euro
Indexes
Democracy
22
Flawed Democracy
Democracy
Democracy
22
Flawed Democracy
Democracy
Corruption Perception
30/180
Medium
Corruption Perception
Corruption Perception
30/180
Medium
Corruption Perception
Human Development
40
Very High
Human Development
Human Development
40
Very High
Human Development
World Happiness
59/153
High
World Happiness
World Happiness
59/153
High
World Happiness
Global Peace
3
Very High
Global Peace
Global Peace
3
Very High
Global Peace
Global Terrorism
138
No Impact
Global Terrorism
Global Terrorism
138
No Impact
Global Terrorism
Legislação sobre Orçamentos Participativos
Portugal has a national legislation that enforces the implementation of participatory budgeting by public schools with students in the 3rd cycle of basic education and/or secondary education. This refers to Order No. 436-A/2017, issued by the Ministry of Education. This establishes the term Participatory Budgeting for Schools (PBS) and defines that the process is organised annually in each of the educational establishments covered by the measure. This represents, in practical terms, the existence of a government initiative that is at the origin of hundreds of participatory budgeting processes throughout the country.
The PBS is financed by the State Budget, and the allocation for each school shall be attributed according to the number of students in the levels of education covered by the Dispatch. Each establishment may choose to allocate additional funding to its process from its own revenue. The legislative initiatives of many local governments that have created specific regulations to support the development of their participatory budgets should also be highlighted. They are established as local laws, approved, and supervised by the competent bodies, namely the municipal assemblies and the parish assemblies.
In addition, the Portuguese Youth Participatory Budgeting, managed by the Instituto Português do Desporto e Juventude, I.P. (“Portuguese Institute for Sport and Youth”), is supported by a Resolution of the Council of Ministers, which stipulates the rules of operation of the initiative. This is not a law that determines the annual implementation of the process by any Government of the Republic, but rather the formalising of a decision by the body in office, which binds it only to itself and for a limited period of time, corresponding, as a rule, to an annual edition of this PB.
Inovações em destaque
The diversity of participatory budgeting initiatives in Portugal allows the regular identification of small innovations introduced in the processes, particularly those promoted by local governance bodies. As it is not possible to detail all these elements in a publication such as the Atlas, we have opted to highlight the experiences conducted by other types of entities, as is the case:
- Of the Nova School of Business and Economics University, starting in 2019, in partnership with the Municipality of Cascais, with a global allocation of 20 thousand euros, jointly borne by the two entities;
- Of the Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave, starting in 2019, with an allocation of EUR 10,000;
- of the Portuguese Nurses’ Association, particularly some of its regional sections, which have been organising participatory budgeting processes for several years. These are aimed at supporting projects that professionals in this area consider important to conduct as part of the work they develop with the communities where they work. The appropriations vary between 5 and 10 thousand euros;
- Of the Portuguese Psychologists’ Association, specifically of its regional sections, with the purpose of enabling members to collaborate in the decision on the entity’s annual plans of activities and budgets;
- Of the Portuguese Pharmacists’ Association, in particular the southern section and the islands, aimed at encouraging members to present new ideas and solutions for the enhancement of the profession, the resolution of problems experienced by the class or even to respond to social situations through the intervention of the pharmacist;
- Of the Portuguese Certified Accountants’ Association, created with the purpose of encouraging the participation of the members in the preparation of the entity’s activity plan and annual budget;
- Of the multinational PHC Software, a Portuguese company dedicated to the development of management software. This implemented the participatory budgeting in the offices located in Lisbon, Porto, Madrid, Limpa and Maputo, by assigning an amount to each one to be decided by the employees and invested in projects aimed at improving working conditions and increasing internal happiness.
INITIAL REFERENCE FOR THE ADOPTION OF PB IN THE COUNTRY
The first major reference was the participatory budget in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The process was introduced in Portugal in 2001/2002 by the Municipality of Palmela, although in a variant that was very different from the original one, based on a purely consultative approach, which ended up influencing other municipalities, becoming a dominant model until 2012, when initiatives of a deliberative nature became a majority.
SUBSEQUENT REFERENCE FOR PB DISSEMINATION
Essentially three references stand out. The oldest is Lisbon, the capital of the country, for having triggered one of the first participatory budgeting initiative of a deliberative nature42, with an allocation of 5 million euros, which allowed it to achieve important visibility with other municipalities and the media.
The second, on a time scale, is Cascais. Its PB model represented a significant advance in the consolidation of a face-to-face method of participation, which has made an impression both within and outside the country, with countless municipalities adopting this example. The growth of the process in number of participants and in budget made it the largest PB developed in Portugal and one of the largest in Europe.
The third reference, more recent and more focused, is that of Valongo, because it is a participatory budgeting dedicated to the young population, which has also served as inspiration for other municipalities.
IMPACTS OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON PB
- PB have been suspended: 96,4%
- PB continued to function normally: 1,6%
- PB have undergone changes/adaptations: 1,9%
MAIN TRENDS OF PB IN THE COUNTRY DURING THE PANDEMIC
On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organisation declared a pandemic of the new coronavirus. One day later, the Portuguese Council of Ministers approved a set of extraordinary and urgent measures to respond to the epidemiological situation, including the declaration of a state of alert, the closure of numerous public services and the suspension of all teaching and non-teaching activities in schools at all levels of education from March 16. This second decision caused the interruption of school participatory budgeting, which were in operation at the time and, in most cases, close to the voting on the finalist projects. The schools did not open again that school year, which resulted in the definitive annulment of the many participatory processes underway.
Based on the rapid worsening of the pandemic in Portugal and other European countries and the need to strengthen the constitutional coverage for more comprehensive measures to combat the situation of public calamity, the President of the Republic decreed, on 18 March 2020, the state of emergency. This decision, articulated with the other sovereign bodies, determined the forced confinement of a significant part of the population and authorised the Government to implement policies never experienced in the country.
This was a scenario of enormous uncertainty, so most public authorities initially chose to announce the interruption or provisional suspension of their participatory processes, while others decided to postpone any determination on the matter, in the expectation that it would be possible to resume activities later in the year, namely in the third or fourth quarters.
The intermittence of the pandemic, with successive waves of infection and the consequent advances and retreats in the containment of the population and the functioning of institutions, has driven the country into three dominant dynamics regarding participatory budgeting processes:
- Suspension, with this reaching over 96% of the total number of initiatives that were active. This high value is since this universe includes school PBs. Restricting the reading to the processes promoted by municipalities, it can be concluded that the paralysis dynamic affected about 50% of the experiences.
- Methodological adaptation, in particular with the conversion of all face-to-face moments into a virtual relationship between citizens and administrations, usually mediated by websites dedicated to the processes;
- Postponement of the implementation schedule, with a certain concentration of cases in the last four months of the year.
