Local Government
73
Large Cities
39
Capital Cities
2
Regional or State Governments
0
National Government
0
Other Institutions
82
Local Government
73
Large Cities
39
Capital Cities
2
Regional or State Governments
0
National Government
0
Other Institutions
82
Community
Capital
Washington D.C.
Population
328 239 520
Language
English
Currency
US Dollar
Indexes
Democracy
25
Flawed Democracy
Democracy
Democracy
25
Flawed Democracy
Democracy
Corruption Perception
23/180
Medium
Corruption Perception
Corruption Perception
23/180
Medium
Corruption Perception
Human Development
15
Very High
Human Development
Human Development
15
Very High
Human Development
World Happiness
18/153
Very High
World Happiness
World Happiness
18/153
Very High
World Happiness
Global Peace
128
Low
Global Peace
Global Peace
128
Low
Global Peace
Global Terrorism
22
Medium
Global Terrorism
Global Terrorism
22
Medium
Global Terrorism
Legislação sobre Orçamentos Participativos
PB programs are regulated by the individual cities, counties, school districts, and organizations that implement them; there is no state or national-level regulation of PB to our knowledge.
Outstanding Innovations
School PB is rapidly expanding in the Phoenix, Arizona metro area, primarily in high schools (18 processes across Arizona in 2019 and 34 in 2020). The New York City Department of Education had created a large PB program that scaled up to 132 processes in 2020, but it appears as though it will be discontinued the following year.
INITIAL REFERENCE FOR THE ADOPTION OF PB IN THE COUNTRY
Participatory Budgeting in the US was inspired both by the Brazilian experience and the Toronto Community Housing27, experience, and was first implemented in Chicago’s 49th Ward in 2009.
SUBSEQUENT REFERENCE FOR PB DISSEMINATION
That model also inspired PB, but was slightly modified, when PB launched in the US in Chicago (2009) and NYC (2010). The Chicago/NYC processes have also been a reference for many other PB initiatives in both the US and Canada.
Impacts of COVID-19 Disease on PB
- PB have been suspended: school PB - about 5%; non-school PB - about 80%;
- PB continued to function normally: school PB- about 85%; non-school PB - about 0%;
- PB have undergone changes/adaptations: school PB- about 10%; non-school PB - about 20%.
Main Trends of PB in the Country During the Pandemic
When the impact of COVID-19 arrived in mid-March, many school PB programs had already concluded their votes because their cycles typically begin earlier during the fall (including all 132 processes within the large New York City Department of Education program). On the other hand, I am not aware of any municipal or other non-school PB program that had concluded voting by this time. Thus, due to the differential impacts
of COVID-19 on school and non-school PB programs, I have presented estimates for their respective impacts separately. These estimates are especially rough for non-school PB processes because definitive information is lacking on about one third of all cases.
WhenschoolPBprogramswereimpacted,theyweremore likely to carry out the cycle using digital deliberation and voting whereas municipal PB processes were more likely to suspend the cycle. This is likely explained by the fact that since schools had already moved to remote instruction, many teachers and administrators may have believed that PB could also be effectively carried out in this manner. On the other hand, city staff running municipal PB programs may have worried that given the digital divide, an abrupt shift to online deliberation and voting would entail negative equity impacts.
