Suchergebnisse

The experience of Porto Alegre has and continues to represent for the entire world a benchmark standard in terms of the participation of citizens in territorial government. Dwelling principally on the technical-instrumental aspects of its extraordinary parable, this book attempts to reconstruct, over and above any evaluation, a biography of the territory and the communities in play, telling the story of how a site on the planet can become a planetary site of participatory democracy

This article is based upon work from COST Action 'Constitution-making and deliberative democracy' (CA17135), supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). ; Over the past decade, Portugal became one of the countries most committed to involving citizens in public decision-making, using 'open door' approaches based on participants' self-selection. To what extent are such practices concerned with inclusiveness? The article is built on the first stage of a two-fold collaborative research to map strategies shaped by Portuguese municipalities for coping with underrepresented actors in participatory processes. The exploratory analysis – funded by the Network of Participatory Municipalities of Portugal (RAP) - reveals common patterns: (1) pursuing inclusion of underrepresented actors is not a policy for fostering a high diversification of actors in spaces of social dialogue, but just a tool for caring of marginalised groups; (2) 'co-design' of inclusionary policies with the targeted social actors is not a common method; (3) there is limited coordination between different policy sectors of each local authority; (4) the majority of 58 participation web-portals are imagined as mere instrumental spaces for organising their democratic innovations, but under-estimate their potential as 'mirrors' of the community and of the different underrepresented groups targeted. The dialogue opened among RAP members on the two surveys reveals a potential for imagining and co-designing shared solutions through the next stages of the collaborative research.

The United Nations Committee of Experts on Public Administration (CEPA) has developed a set of principles of effective governance for sustainable development. The essential purpose of these voluntary principles is to provide interested countries with practical, expert guidance on a broad range of governance challenges associated with the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. CEPA has identified 62 commonly used strategies to assist with the operationalization of these principles. This guidance note addresses participatory budgeting, which is associated with the principle of participation and can contribute to strengthening the inclusiveness of institutions. It is part of a series of notes prepared by renowned experts under the overall direction of the CEPA Secretariat in the Division for Public Institutions and Digital Government of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. In reading this guidance note, individuals in government ministries and agencies who are less familiar with the topic will be able to understand the fundamentals. Those who have perhaps taken initial steps in this area with limited follow-through or impact will be able to identify how to adjust elements of their practice to achieve better results and to better embed and institutionalize the strategy in their organizations. Those who are more advanced in participatory budgeting will be able to recognize the practices which contribute to its success.

L'articolo parte dalla decisione del governo Brasiliano di silenziare parte della produzione di dati sui danni causati dalla pandemia COVID-19, per proporre una riflessione sulla trasformazione del principio di trasparenza e della sua relazione con le politiche pubbliche. Nel ripercorrerne la complessa natura di mito e di spazio produttore di miti, attraverso la disamina di alcuni testi costituzionali e di pratiche partecipative formalizzate, il testo s'interroga su come strutturare piú solidamente le relazioni tra due ambiti importanti dell'azione pubblica: la promozione della trasparenza e quella della partecipazione civica all'azione di governo. I due campi appaiono avere molte convergenze strutturali, persino nello svuotamento graduale di significati proposto dalla retorica politica, e il loro crescente dialogo in molti paesi evidenzia la mutua capacitá di apprendimento e fertilizzazione, se pensati da subito nella loro interazione reciproca. L'analisi di come ha teso a strutturarsi negli ultimi anni il rapporto tra trasparenza e innovazioni democratiche mostra che queste ultime sono necessarie ma non sufficienti a garantire un'elevato livello di trasparenza, che richiede di affrontare problemi strutturali che riguardano l'organizzazione politico-amministrativa, le risorse, la mentalitá diffusa e la comunicazione pubblica in un determinato contesto. Per lo meno, non sono sufficienti, quando il contesto non si pone obiettivi sfidanti di ripensamento radicale della partecipazione, attraverso movimenti "a rete" che possano – incrociando sperimentazioni diverse – riflettere in forma collettiva su nuovi modi di mettere in dialogo azioni partecipative promosse "dall'alto" e "dal basso". ; This article starts from the Brazilian government's decision to silence a part of data production on the damage caused by the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, in order to propose a reflection on changing the principle of transparency and its relation to public policy. In retracing the complex nature of myth and the myth-producing space, by examining some constitutional texts and formalized participatory practices, the text asks how the relations between two major areas of public action could be structured more solidly: promotion of transparency and civic participation in government action. The two fields seem to have many structural convergences, even in the gradual emptying of meanings proposed by political rhetoric, and their growing dialogue in many countries highlights the mutual ability to learn and fertilize, if immediately thought through in their mutual interaction. The analysis of how the relation between transparency and democratic innovations has tended to structure itself in recent years shows that the latter are necessary, but not sufficient to guarantee a high level of transparency, which requires addressing structural problems related to political and administrative organization, resources, widespread mentality, and public communication in a given context. At least, they are not sufficient when the context does not impose challenging goals of radically rethinking participation, through 'networking' movements that may – by crossing various experiments – collectively reflect new ways of putting participatory actions into a dialogue promoted 'top-down' and 'bottom-up.' ; Este artigo parte da decisão do governo brasileiro de silenciar parte da produção de dados sobre os danos causados pela pandemia de Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), para propor uma reflexão sobre a transformação do princípio de transparência e de sua relação com as políticas públicas. Ao reconstituir a complexa natureza do mito e do espaço produtor de mitos, por meio do exame de alguns textos constitucionais e das práticas participativas formalizadas, o texto questiona como se estrutura de modo mais sólido as relações entre duas importantes áreas da ação pública: a promoção da transparência e a participação cidadã na ação governamental. Os dois campos parecem ter muitas convergências estruturais, mesmo no gradual esvaziamento de sentidos proposto pela retórica política, e seu crescente diálogo em muitos países evidencia a mútua capacidade de aprendizagem e fertilização, se pensadas imediatamente em sua mútua interação. A análise de como a relação entre transparência e inovações democráticas tende a se estruturar nos últimos anos mostra que estas últimas são necessárias, mas não suficientes para garantir um alto nível de transparência, o que exige lidar com problemas estruturais relativos à organização político-administrativa, aos recursos, à mentalidade generalizada e à comunicação pública em determinado contexto. Pelo menos não são suficientes quando o contexto não impõe objetivos desafiadores em termos de um repensar radical da participação, mediante movimentos "em rede" que possam – cruzando diferentes experiências – refletir coletivamente sobre novas formas de pôr em diálogo as ações participativas promovidas "de cima para baixo" e "de baixo para cima".

This article starts from the Brazilian government's decision to silence a part of data production on the damage caused by the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, in order to propose a reflection on changing the principle of transparency and its relation to public policy. In retracing the complex nature of myth and the myth-producing space, by examining some constitutional texts and formalized participatory practices, the text asks how the relations between two major areas of public action could be structured more solidly: promotion of transparency and civic participation in government action. The two fields seem to have many structural convergences, even in the gradual emptying of meanings proposed by political rhetoric, and their growing dialogue in many countries highlights the mutual ability to learn and fertilize, if immediately thought through in their mutual interaction. The analysis of how the relation between transparency and democratic innovations has tended to structure itself in recent years shows that the latter are necessary, but not sufficient to guarantee a high level of transparency, which requires addressing structural problems related to political and administrative organization, resources, widespread mentality, and public communication in a given context. At least, they are not sufficient when the context does not impose challenging goals of radically rethinking participation, through 'networking' movements that may – by crossing various experiments – collectively reflect new ways of putting participatory actions into a dialogue promoted 'top-down' and 'bottom-up.' ; Este artículo parte de la decisión del gobierno brasileño de silenciar una parte de la producción de datos acerca del daño causado por la pandemia de Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), con el fin de proponer una reflexión sobre el cambio del principio de transparencia y su relación con las políticas públicas. Al volver sobre la naturaleza compleja del mito y el espacio productor de mitos, mediante el examen de algunos textos constitucionales y de prácticas participativas formalizadas, el texto se pregunta cómo las relaciones entre dos grandes áreas de acción pública podrían estructurarse de manera más sólida: la promoción de la transparencia y la participación ciudadana en la acción del gobierno. Los dos campos parecen tener muchas convergencias estructurales, incluso en el vaciamiento gradual de significados que propone la retórica política, y su creciente diálogo en muchos países pone de relieve la capacidad mutua de aprender y fertilizar, si se piensa de inmediato en su interacción mutua. El análisis de cómo la relación entre transparencia e innovaciones democráticas ha tendido a estructurarse en los últimos años muestra que estas últimas son necesarias, pero no suficientes para garantizar n alto nivel de transparencia, lo que requiere abordar problemas estructurales relacionados con la organización político-administrativa, los recursos, la mentalidad generalizada y la comunicación pública en un contexto determinado. Al menos, no son suficientes cuando el contexto no impone metas desafiantes para repensar radicalmente la participación, a través de movimientos "en red" que pueden – al cruzar experimentos diversos – reflejar colectivamente nuevas formas de poner las acciones participativas en un diálogo promovido "de arriba hacia abajo" y "de abajo hacia arriba". ; L'articolo parte dalla decisione del governo Brasiliano di silenziare parte della produzione di dati sui danni causati dalla pandemia COVID-19, per proporre una riflessione sulla trasformazione del principio di trasparenza e della sua relazione con le politiche pubbliche. Nel ripercorrerne la complessa natura di mito e di spazio produttore di miti, attraverso la disamina di alcuni testi costituzionali e di pratiche partecipative formalizzate, il testo s'interroga su come strutturare piú solidamente le relazioni tra due ambiti importanti dell'azione pubblica: la promozione della trasparenza e quella della partecipazione civica all'azione di governo. I due campi appaiono avere molte convergenze strutturali, persino nello svuotamento graduale di significati proposto dalla retorica politica, e il loro crescente dialogo in molti paesi evidenzia la mutua capacitá di apprendimento e fertilizzazione, se pensati da subito nella loro interazione reciproca. L'analisi di come ha teso a strutturarsi negli ultimi anni il rapporto tra trasparenza e innovazioni democratiche mostra che queste ultime sono necessarie ma non sufficienti a garantire un'elevato livello di trasparenza, che richiede di affrontare problemi strutturali che riguardano l'organizzazione politico-amministrativa, le risorse, la mentalitá diffusa e la comunicazione pubblica in un determinato contesto. Per lo meno, non sono sufficienti, quando il contesto non si pone obiettivi sfidanti di ripensamento radicale della partecipazione, attraverso movimenti "a rete" che possano – incrociando sperimentazioni diverse – riflettere in forma collettiva su nuovi modi di mettere in dialogo azioni partecipative promosse "dall'alto" e "dal basso". ; Este artigo parte da decisão do governo brasileiro de silenciar parte da produção de dados sobre os danos causados pela pandemia de Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), para propor uma reflexão sobre a transformação do princípio de transparência e de sua relação com as políticas públicas. Ao reconstituir a complexa natureza do mito e do espaço produtor de mitos, por meio do exame de alguns textos constitucionais e das práticas participativas formalizadas, o texto questiona como se estrutura de modo mais sólido as relações entre duas importantes áreas da ação pública: a promoção da transparência e a participação cidadã na ação governamental. Os dois campos parecem ter muitas convergências estruturais, mesmo no gradual esvaziamento de sentidos proposto pela retórica política, e seu crescente diálogo em muitos países evidencia a mútua capacidade de aprendizagem e fertilização, se pensadas imediatamente em sua mútua interação. A análise de como a relação entre transparência e inovações democráticas tende a se estruturar nos últimos anos mostra que estas últimas são necessárias, mas não suficientes para garantir um alto nível de transparência, o que exige lidar com problemas estruturais relativos à organização político-administrativa, aos recursos, à mentalidade generalizada e à comunicação pública em determinado contexto. Pelo menos não são suficientes quando o contexto não impõe objetivos desafiadores em termos de um repensar radical da participação, mediante movimentos "em rede" que possam – cruzando diferentes experiências – refletir coletivamente sobre novas formas de pôr em diálogo as ações participativas promovidas "de cima para baixo" e "de baixo para cima"

International municipalism is not a new phenomenon, but its recognition remains an ongoing process. During the last decades, increased urbanisation rates (up to 50% in 2007: see UCLG, 2016), the rearrangement of decentralisation frameworks in many countries and the new role of local authorities as engines and guarantors of local development have established cities as important political protagonists. The beginning of the new millennium was characterised by two diverging but complementary trends. On the one hand, networks advocating for the recognition of cities as pivotal political and diplomatic actors tended to merge to strengthen their position vis-à-vis states and the United Nations. On the other, new thematic networks fostering peerto-peer learning, pilot experiments and knowledge exchange started to grow and multiply at both national and international levels.

Il Portogallo, ripresosi da una pesante crisi economico-finanziaria e divenuto il simbolo di una possibile ricetta politica progressista, affronta oggi nuove sfide che destano curiositá in chi ha seguito i progressi di un paese che oramai é tra le mete turistiche ed anche tra le destinazioni d'immigrazione favorite dagli italiani. Tra le sfide principali, vi sono quelle legate alle politiche della casa, ripensare le quali é divenuto necessario a seguito del boom dei prezzi di affitto e vendita causato anche dagli investimenti stranieri e della forte pressione del turismo. L'intervista alla Segretaria di Stato alla Casa Ana Pinho (riconfermata alla guida di questo dipartimento del Ministero delle Infrastrutture dopo le elezioni del 6 ottobre 2019) chiarisce il quadro delle politiche abitative di nuova generazione e il modo in cui si inseriscono nelle politiche di governo territorio.

Le forme autoritarie portano ordine e la partecipazione caos? Nella gestione del territorio e delle politiche urbane non esiste la garanzia che le iniziative partecipative possano rendere le politiche maggiormente efficaci o efficienti, ma in diversi paesi e a diverse latitudini sono evidenti i risultati di forme di co-progettazione e co-gestione del territorio e delle politiche pubbliche in cui il rispetto del pluralismo si concilia con la necessità di prendere decisioni. L'urbanistica partecipata può più facilmente portare trasformazioni sostenibili, durature e resilienti, evitando le forme demagogiche e gestendo correttamente i processi di coinvolgimento dei cittadini nelle scelte.

Negli ultimi 20 anni, la trasformazione di Roma é stata accompagnata da percorsi partecipativi, che hanno avuto nel tempo carattere discontinuo, riflettendo le peculiaritá dei diversi governi locali che li hanno promossi. Il saggio, che ha come fuoco centrale le sperimentazioni della gestione Veltroni (quando Roma ha rappresentato una delle espressioni più signifcative di un periodo cruciale per la partecipazione in Italia) recupera la memoria di alcuni importanti percorsi, e cerca di enucleare elementi di continuità, di novità e di contiguità che possano interagire con le nuove proposte di strumenti di partecipazione che vedono il Movimento 5 Stelle come nuovo propulsore. Il testo mostra come l'attenzione ai temi della rigenerazione urbana e della partecipazione alle politiche di governo del territorio ha teso gradualmente ad essere sostituita da un'idea di partecipazione intesa come garanzia di trasparenza e accesso all'informazione, in cui l'enfasi é centrata sulle forme di democrazia diretta e di controllo sociale dell'amministrazione, piuttosto che sulla co-progettazione. ; In the last 20 years, several participatory processes accompanied the transformation of Rome. Their nature, discontinuous over time, well reflects the peculiarities of the different local governments that promoted them. This essay, which mainly focuses on the experiments carried on during Veltroni's mandate (when Rome represented one of the most signifcant expressions of a crucial period for participation in Italy) recovers the memory of some important processes, and seeks to identify elements of continuity, novelty and contiguity that can interact with the new proposals of participation tools which the 5 Star Movement has been driving in recent years. The text shows how attention to the themes of urban regeneration and participation in local government's policies gradually tended to be replaced by an idea of participation as a guarantee of transparency and access to information, whose emphasis is mostly centred on the forms of direct democracy and social oversight of institutions by citizens, rather than on co-planning and co-design.

Since the echo of Porto Alegre experience started to gain space and emulations around the world, during the 90s, Participatory Budgeting (PB) became one of the most respected and analysed typologies of participatory democracy processes, due to the radical horizons it often poses, and the clear principles that forge its peculiarities. At present, with more than 1500 experiences of Participatory Budgeting existing in different countries of the world, it raises an interesting debate which explicitly poses the question whether or not a unique sequential logic in conceiving the relationship between representative democratic institutions and spaces of participatory decision-making exists. The essay starts looking at Participatory Budgeting practices as a barrier to what can be described as the "double disease of liberal democracies" (DDD) through the creation of "hybrid models" of participatory institutions which could involve a tight dialogue between delegated decision-making and direct participation of citizens in the framing of government acts. PB is analysed not only as a central tool of new experiments seeking to successfully renovate public policies at a local level, but also as a perspective from which it is possible to understand some features and challenges of a needed major "shift" in facing the convergent crises that affect several countries. Seen not as a "model", but rather as an "ideoscape" (using an Appadurai definition), Participatory Budgeting is red as a political and contextualisable "set of principles" which travels globally through cross-pollination networks, but only exists through local appropriation, especially in urban areas. The essay describes "pure models" and some "hybrids" that merged the most common principles of Latin American PBs together with features which are typical of "deliberative democracy" experiments, as the Chinese example of Zeguo. Beyond the multiple and differentiated direct effects on investments, Participatory Budgeting is valorised for its pedagogic added value on citizens' civic engagement and maturation, its capacity to strengthen and spread a "pedagogy of solidarity", and for the complementary integration with the benefits of other participatory programmes, often interrelated with it. Specific references are done to concrete examples where PB contributed to guarantee a better level of sustainability to local public policies. In the end of the article, the author underlines some examples (in Spain, Italy, France, Congo, India or Brazil) which are showing the challenges of "scaling up" of Participatory Budgeting to higher institutional levels than the municipal ones, also fighting against the fragility and volatility that have – up to now – affected several experimentations around the world.

Peer-reviewed conference paper originally presented at the workshop Legitimacy 2.0: E-democracy and Public Opinion in the Digital Age, at the IVR World Congress held in Frankfurt, August 18th 2011 ; Until three years ago, ICT Technologies represented a main "subordinate clause" within the "grammar" of Participatory Budgeting (PB), the tool made famous by the experience of Porto Alegre and today expanded to more than 1400 cities across the planet. In fact, PB – born to enhance deliberation and exchanges among citizens and local institutions – has long looked at ICTS as a sort of "pollution factor" which could be useful to foster transparency and to support the spreading of information but could also lead to a lowering in quality of public discussion, turning its "instantaneity" into "immediatism," and its "time-saving accessibility" into "reductionism" and laziness in facing the complexity of public decisionmaking through citizens' participation. At the same time, ICTs often regarded Participatory Budgeting as a tool that was too-complex and too-charged with ideology to cooperate with. But in the last three years, the barriers which prevented ICTs and Participatory Budgeting to establish a constructive dialogue started to shrink thanks to several experiences which demonstrated that technologies can help overcome some "cognitive injustices" if not just used as a means to "make simpler" the organization of participatory processes and to bring "larger numbers" of intervenients to the process. In fact, ICTs could be valorized as a space adding "diversity" to the processes and increasing outreach capacity. Paradoxically, the experiences helping to overcome the mutual skepticism between ICTs and PB did not come from the centre of the Global North, but were implemented in peripheral or semiperipheral countries (Democratic Republic of Congo, Brazil, Dominican Republic and Portugal in Europe), sometimes in cities where the "digital divide" is still high (at least in terms of Internet connections) and a significant part of the population lives in informal settlements and/or areas with low indicators of "connection." Somehow, these experiences were able to demystify the "scary monolithicism" of ICTs, showing that some instruments (like mobile phones, and especially the use of SMS text messaging) could grant a higher degree of connectivity, diffusion and accountability, while other dimensions (which could jeopardize social inclusion) could be minimized through creativity. The paper tries to depict a possible panorama of collaboration for the near future, starting from descriptions of some of the above mentioned "turning-point" experiences – both in the Global North as well as in the Global South.

Recensão crítica a Donatella della Porta (a cura di), Comitati di Cittadini e Democrazia Urbana, Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino, 2004, pp. 270, ISBN: 88-498-1087-3.

Il terzo World Urban Forum organizzato dalle Nazioni Unite a Vancouver è stato -come spesso succede agli incontri internazionaliun ambiguo confronto di riti e proteste di governi e movimenti. La rapida urbanizzazione delle megalopoli del sud del mondo allarma, almeno nei documenti, i governi e gli organismi internazionali. Ma più del dato quantitativo, sono i nuovi elementi della crisi urbana a confondere il quadro delle certezze acquisite. I problemi delle città non sono infatti patrimonio in esclusiva delle 'povere, grandi città del sud; e tanto meno le soluzioni si trovano nei modi di crescita delle ricche città del Nord. Al contrario, queste vedono crescere le rivolte, la povertà, l'insicurezza, l'emergenza abitativa. Ma questo crocevia di questioni pare ignorato dal ricettario corrente, che insiste sulla dubbia competizione tra città, ed elogia un'astratta classe creativa. Mentre almeno dal terzo mondo si potrebbero imparare approcci innovative e politiche più incisive.