In this research I verified the empowerment capacity of the Chilean experience for participatory budgeting. Specifically, I evaluated the impact of three factors (promoter leadership, cross-cutting and design) on the variability of this effect. I chose these factors because they have not been evaluated in respect of their impact on the collective empowerment as a result; further, they have not been properly linked each other and at least in paradigmatic contexts. In order to review this subject, I compared eight cases of municipal participatory budgeting in Chile. To do this, I used a qualitative approach, taking into account the observation of documentary material and the analysis of 128 deeply semi-structured interviews. There are three major contributions in my work: first, a proposal of conceptualization and operationalization of collective empowerment; second, the proposal of an analytical model for the observation of institutionalized processes of participatory opening, from the point of view of their impact on the empowerment; and third, the identification of conditions that promote the empowerment, highlighting the explanatory power of the approach of the participation that hold promoters leadership; this determines both the insertion of participatory mechanisms in the local administration, and their institutional design. In a practical sense, the results of this research serve to enhance experimental processes, especially in terms of procedure, and the assessment of the insertion of them in the administration. The study concluded that: i) the ideology of the leadership is not as decisive in respect of the type of mechanism that develops and, consequently, of their impact on the empowerment; ii) the concepts of participation that advocates leadership best explain the variability of results; iii) both the approach of the participation and the cross-cutting level of the process are factors impacting on empowerment; iv) the participatory model -although is not a necessary condition to produce the effect- also potency its generation; v) the cross-cutting level is highly significant for public perception of government opening; and vi) that the dominant configuration in the Chilean experience is the instrumental one (and depoliticized); thus, their impacts are low in terms of collective empowerment.
Innovación Democrática y empoderamiento: estudio comparado de ocho experiencias de presupuesto participativo en Chile
Camilo Hernan, A. V. (Author). 23 Jan 2015
Student thesis: Doctoral thesis
Student thesis: Doctoral thesis