Who participates in participatory budgeting?

It is necessary to differentiate what happens in Brazil from what happens elsewhere.  One of the main characteristics of the majority of Participatory Budgets in Brazilian cities is the universal right to participate in a voluntary, individual, and direct manner, not necessarily through community, union, or other representatives. In these cases it is not necessary to belong to any organization to participate.  Clearly, organizations play an important role, but they do not have formal privileges. 

In fact, it is the mobilised citizenry - organised or not - which decides.  Many times, this kind of participation is also valued in Europe.  In contrast, the remaining Latin American cities and some European ones (for example, Spain) tend to encourage participation through representatives of existing organizations. 

This modality reflects what is called "community or associative representative democracy". In this case, the participation of individuals is mediated by delegates most likely "closer to their concerns and demands" than in conventional representative democracy.  There are also "mixed" systems which rest on neighbourhood organizations, but which at the same time broaden the budgetary discussions to include all residents.  Due to their strong participatory tradition, Cordoba (Spain), Cuenca (Ecuador) and Villa El Salvador (Peru) are illustrative of this modality. 

Finally, in a number of European cities, participants and/or delegates are designated by raffle in order to promote the participation of those citizens who do not normally get involved, in particular from the more marginalised groups.