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Unintentional Democratisation? The Argentinazo and the Politics of Participatory Budgeting in Buenos Aires, 2001-2004

Author: D Rodgers
Date: 2005
Size: 35 pages (33 KB)

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Summary

If the implementation of Participatory Budgeting (PB) requires strong political parties, how then did it come to emerge in Buenos Aires in a time of economic crisis, with fragmenting government and conflicting interests? This working paper examines the background to the Argentinazo crisis, and the implementation of PB in spite of a lack of those conditions considered theoretically necessary.

Empowered Deliberative Democracy (EDD) is an institutional model of participatory governance which seeks to address the ‘democratic deficit’ often associated with representational democracy, especially in the developing world. EDD extends citizen participation in governance by devolving authority, aiming at a consensual ‘common good’ reached through discussion, rather than the exercise of power politics. PB is perhaps the best known form of EDD, handing over decisions on the allocation of municipal funds for basic urban infrastructure (building new schools and hospitals, for example) to neighbourhood level forums.

Post-dictatorship democracy in Argentina offered the public very little in terms of accountability or representation. The increasingly fragile economic situation in the 1990s disintegrated into a total breakdown in December 2001 – the Argentinazo – when the economy collapsed and a state of emergency was declared, prompting riots and protests. The general socio-economic decline, coupled with the acute crisis over 2001, reflected a fundamental breakdown in state-society relations. This fragmented political environment was hardly the textbook climate for implementing PB, so how did such a move come about?

To some extent, the implementation of PB was the Government of the City of Buenos Aires (GCBA)’s method of crisis management in response to the Argentinazo:

• After the disintegration of the coalition government, and the subsequent fragmentation of various political parties, Ibarra (mayor of Buenos Aires) urgently sought to reinforce links with political groups, in particular Grupo Espacio Abertio (GEA), led by Schifrin.
• Schifrin’s accepted Ibarra’s offer of a place in government, on condition that he implement PB, to ‘pacify’ the masses, and on the basis of its success in Porto Alegre, to strengthen Ibarra’s re-election chances.
• Schifrin’s personal agenda for PB implementation was one of consolidating and expanding GEA political networks, displacing hitherto dominant, rival local organisations.

In the first two years of implementation, PB worked well, with wide participation, generating a range of positive effects. Considered against the range of cutbacks and financial scarcity, PB achievements were extremely impressive, and can be attributed to the following factors:

• The PB process in Buenos Aires was crucially different than in Porto Alegre: concerning not specific sums of money, but government actions, avoiding the problem of the lack of available funds.
• PB fostered a genuine sense of local autonomy and empowerment due to the composition of the Technical Co-ordination team (TC). Previously disillusioned with politics, many of these members had turned instead to an ethos of public service, which the PB process reinforced.
• Strong local neighbourhood identities, populated by civil society organisations, activist groups and co-operatives, resisted much of the politicisation of the PB process by GEA, instead taking the opportunity to gain access to government bureaucracy.
• Despite the abandonment of PB by Ibarra, members of the TC and others have set up an organisation promoting PB as a form of local governance, and spread it to other areas of Argentina.
• Some former TC members have been implementing participatory forms of governance in the new institutional posts they occupy, suggesting a long term contribution to changing the political culture in Buenos Aires.

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Source: Rodgers, D., 2005, 'Unintentional Democratisation? The Argentinazo and the Politics of Participatory Budgeting in Buenos Aires, 2001-2004,' Crisis States Research Centre, London
Author: Dennis Rodgers , d.w.rodgers@lse.ac.uk