Cases

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    Summary

     

    Participatory Budgeting (PB) is a process implemented in the 1990s where residents of certain regions can influence how their governments' annual budgets are allocated. After the collapse of its authoritarian regime in the mid 1980s, Brazilians implemented reforms to bolster their economic and political futures through participatory methods. These new democratic practices drastically improved the lives and social infrastructure of its participants.

     

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    Note: Anna Wohlfarth co-wrote the initial Participedia case on BürgerForum Europa.

    The Citizens’ Forum is a new form of participation developed by the Bertelsmann Foundation, the Ludwig-Erhard Foundation and the Heinz Nixdorf Foundation. It is a 6-8 week online deliberation embedded in two live events, one at the beginning of the process and the other one at the end. This article describes the second edition of the Citizens’ Forum Europe.

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    Problems and Purpose

    The financial and economic crisis, of which we have heard so much discussion since 2007-8, is only one aspect of a whole series of underlying political trends which have been apparent for much longer: a crisis of (in)equality and of increased precarity of the workforce, a human rights crisis, a demographic crisis, an ecological crisis, a crisis in civil liberties, and above all a crisis in democracy.
     

  • Author: 

    Summary

    This case study features a new initiative that aims to promote a whole new form of participatory democracy across the European Union (EU). Citizen initiatives that garner 1 million signatures across a wide range of Member States will be considered by the European Commission. This gives residents across the EU the direct ability to propose legislation and influence matters that concern the entire continent.

  • EuroPolis was organized in response to the "democratic deficit" critique leveled against European politics. Through deliberative polling, it explores how informed debate can improve European democracy.The participants were selected from among more than 4,000 European citizens from the 27 member states of the EU polled for their views on immigration, climate change and the EU between March and May 2009. The findings from the deliberative polling excercise were presented in the Residence Palace in Brussels on the 3rd of June 2009.

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