Problems and Purpose

The participatory budget in San Antonio is a program that promotes the integration of citizens in municipal management, through the incorporation of the community in decision-making of a part of the municipal budget close to 2% and 3%, of the Investment item, to solve the needs emanating from the neighbors themselves.

It is aimed at strengthening citizen participation by making municipal management more transparent, allowing democratization of decision-making when determining in what to invest part of municipal resources.

It promotes the associated management of the community in terms of citizen participation, through a methodological model oriented to the design of projects.

History

Towards the year 2001 the municipality of Cerro Navia, located in the Metropolitan Region, decided to implement the participatory budget. Years later, San Antonio (Valparaíso Region) will do so with the idea of incorporating citizens and organizations in the decisions of a small portion of the total municipal budget, specifically of approximately 500 thousand dollars, which at that time represented about 4 % of the total budget of that municipality.

Today San Antonio is part of the select group of municipalities in Chile that have managed to sustain this participatory democracy mechanism for more than three consecutive years.

Inhabitants: 95,674

Total municipal budget (in thousands of USD): 14,777.09

Amount allocated to the participatory budget (in thousands of USD): 500

Source: Egon Montecinos, Year 2008

Participant Selection

The participatory budget is aimed at all the inhabitants of the Commune of San Antonio. For 2009 the estimated population was 97,467 inhabitants. A coverage of 65,000 inhabitants with the right to participate in the participatory budget process is calculated.

Any citizen over 14 years of age can participate in the process of proposing project ideas, prioritizing, deliberating and voting on the initiatives that emanate from the sectoral assemblies.

The citizenship is distributed in three urban territories (Sasn Antonio, Barrancas, Llolleo), made up of 10 sectors and a rural territory made up of 9 sectors.

Then territorial assemblies are formed. For this, pre-existing administrative districts are usually followed, such as census tracts and / or neighborhood units. It is sought that in the definition of the territories (which are later constituted in territorial assemblies) the identity variable developed by them is considered. In the case of San Antonio, the territorial assemblies go beyond the pre-existing units and hold assemblies in neighborhoods and neighborhood units that are difficult to access. There is a high level of intra-municipal decentralization.

The layout of projects is born in the Territorial Assemblies, where they are presented. The assemblies are general meetings open to the participation of any neighbor over 14 years of age, regardless of whether or not they are enrolled in a functional organization.

The Assemblies elect the Delegates whose mission is to ensure the inclusion of project initiatives in the vote and to guarantee that the viability granted by the municipal technical team to the ideas that arise in the informative assemblies is in line with what raised by those who attended these assemblies. After the selection of the projects, the delegates become an integral part of the commissions for monitoring or citizen oversight of the participatory budget.

After the winning project idea is known, depending on its type, its execution is channeled by means of a subsidy through a functional organization of the sector or else by means of a tender.

Deliberation, Decisions, and Public Interaction

Citizens decide which investment projects they are most interested in materializing through "universal voting" in which citizens (generally over 14 years of age) choose, through popular vote, the projects to be executed with the resources of the participatory budget. Thus, both the citizens of the commune of the urban and rural areas, organize and propose initiatives of ideas of individual or associative projects in the different assemblies.

The primary objective is for residents to prioritize, discuss and deliberate their projects, to apply for the award of pre-assigned resource funds by sector.

To access financing for project initiatives, they are included in a vote. The most voted is the one that finally ends up being awarded.

Influence, Outcomes, and Effects

• Among the effects of the participatory budget we can mention:
• Strengthening citizen participation
• Citizen associationism
• Training of leaders, delegates and citizens in general who wish to participate in the participatory budget process
• Link with social organizations: It allows all types of Functional Social Organizations (Neighborhood Councils, Sports Club, Committees, etc.), to have the possibility of participating in the participatory budget process

Analysis and Criticism

The explanation regarding the high participation of citizens in San Antonio, (exceeds 10%), is given from the configuration of a "citizen participation policy" sustained over time and the effort made to link this mechanism with other instruments of participation and local planning.

Number of people who participate in the process of defining priorities and projects in the participatory budget of San Antonio

Number of participants: 14,632

Percentage in relation to the total population: 15.2%

Source: Egon Montecinos, Year 2008

This can be seen reflected in the opinion shared by social leaders of Negrete, Lautaro and San Antonio who point out that:

"Distrust is in the first year of participatory projects, because it is not known what use the mayors are going to give it, but after seeing that it is more transparent and that some organizations are entering new people, one is motivated and supported" ( Social key informants, Number 2 MN, Number 3 MSA and Number 4 ML, 2009).

The nature of the fiscal resources allocated to the participatory budget is essentially municipal. In all cases, the entire municipal budget is not discussed, but a small portion that does not exceed 3% of the total budget. Only in the case of San Antonio a multilevel incidence is observed, since in the 2008 version it received a contribution of 50 million pesos (95,748.75 USD) from the Regional Government of Valparaíso that was added to the municipal monies destined for the financing of projects via participatory budget.

The item from which the resources for participatory budgeting arise corresponds to the investment to the community item. This fund mainly finances minor projects, such as, for example, expansion and equipping of headquarters, paving of sidewalks, improvement of public lighting, provision of recreational spaces, among others.

If the fiscal reality of all municipalities in Chile is considered, the amount that is debated in the participatory budget is mostly less than 2% of the total municipal budget. If for this analysis only the investment item for the community with its own income owned by Chilean municipalities is considered, the highest percentage to be discussed in the participatory budget is reached by the municipality of San Antonio (84%). The rest of the municipalities reached, on average, only 28.3%.

Regarding the budget availability per inhabitant of the participatory budget, the amounts in general for the Chilean municipalities are precarious, ranging from USD 1 per inhabitant (Purranque municipality) to USD 17 per person (Freirina municipality). In the case of San Antonio it is 5.2 USD.

The amount of projects in some cases does not exceed 1,000 dollars. For San Antonio they can reach $ 12,000. The nature of the works and projects are basically related to a minor community infrastructure and equipment.

Secondary Sources

• Pagliai and Montecinos, Participatory Budgets in Chile, http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/chile/04624.pdf
• Chilean Forum on Participatory Budgeting 2010,
  www.op-portugal.org/downloads/90Respostas_sobre_OP_no_Chile.pdf [DEAD LINK]
• Montecinos, Egon. 2006. "Decentralization and Citizen Participation in Chilean Municipal Management". Journal of Political Science 26 (2): 181-208.

External Links

• www.sanantonio.cl
• Participatory Budget in Chile, What is the Participatory Budget?
  www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBJDTwA6zZ4