Contents

List of Tables and Figures

IIRE Notebooks for

Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations

Introduction: From the PT to Porto Alegre

Prologue: The View from Below

Part I: The Participatory Budget- Origins, Aims and Ambiguities

1. Participatory Democracy – The Debate

2. From First Steps to Final Strategies

Part II: How it Works

3. Basic Principles

4. Porto Alegre: The City Budget

5. The Participatory Budget in Two Other Cities

6. On a Bigger Scale: Rio Grande do Sul and Nationwide

Part III: What it Means

7. Participatory Democracy and Local Power: The Experience of Porto Alegre

8. Theses on Local Government and the Struggle for Socialism

9. The Question of Democracy Today

10. PT Local Governments and Socialism

Notes

Index