Taking Participatory Budgeting Online

Buenos Aires, Argentina

The Action

In April 2017, Buenos Aires joined a growing network of cities which are reviving interest in participatory budgeting by making it tech enabled. It unveiled Buenos Aires Elige or “BA Elige” (Buenos Aires Choose) to give residents an opportunity to propose and select projects for the 2018 city budget through a five part process. There are limits, of course—suggestions cannot require the modification of any current law and must not incur additional operating costs once implemented. For the third edition of the program, the city received more than 28,000 proposals and included a mechanism for residents to create proposals together at cocreation meetings.

We can proudly say that we are the most participative city in Latin America, and hopefully this year there will be more neighbors who will do so, who will propose projects, and then vote.

Democracy Challenge

Budgeting decisions have a profound impact on communities, but they are typically made through arcane technical and political processes that are difficult for residents to follow. Participatory budgeting can close the gap between residents and budgets, but it still requires a level of commitment and engagement that is unrealistic for most residents. 

How It Works & How They Did It

Inspired by Decide Madrid (Madrid Decides) through the Open Government Partnership’s Local Program, Buenos Aires launched BA Elige using the open source Consul citizen participation software. The website mediates an open process of submitting and voting on proposals for how the Buenos Aires government should spend a portion of its budget. In the first edition, ARS 500 million (about $11 million) were available for local projects in the city’s 15 communes. In 2018, an additional ARS 100 million were added to the participatory budget to fund citywide proposals.  

The city uses the following budgeting process.

Proposals: Residents make initial proposals between March and April: 

• Anyone can make project proposals, regardless of their age, nationality, or residence—even visitors can recommend ways for Buenos Aires to improve.  
• Proposals can be made in 11 categories: Innovation, Culture, Education, Places and Parks, Mobility and Transit, Pets, Recycling, Sports and Quality of Life, Urban Art, Fairs, and Markets and Safety.  
• Proposals cannot require the modification of any current law, must not incur additional operating costs once implemented, and must maintain a standard of morality and public decency. 
• In 2019, the city added a mechanism for residents (who are referred to as vecinos, or “neighbors”) to create proposals together, collaborating and building on others’ ideas. The objective was to improve the ideation process and enhance participation. In February and March, in all the communes of the city, residents were invited to be part of proposal cocreation meetings with “ideation tables.”

Campaigning: Users try to gain popular support for their own or others’ ideas in May: 

• The BA Elige website has buttons to share each proposal on Facebook or Twitter, and a page of best tips and practices recommends using friends and family to spread the idea through word of mouth. The site also provides a template promotional flyer. In 2018, WhatsApp was added as a new channel for submitting proposals.
• Users can cast a “vote” for as many proposals as they want, citywide and in one commune of their choosing.  

Analysis: The city government analyzes potential costs and implementation issues for the top ranked proposals, and accepts or rejects them based on feasibility, price, and other previously mentioned factors during the months of June and July.

Voting: Users select from the remaining proposals in another round of voting in August. In addition to adhering to previous rules, a proposal must now get at least 200 votes to be adopted into the city budget for the next year. Residents of Buenos Aires who are at least 16 years old can vote for proposals, casting one vote for each project they support. Participants can either cast their ballot via the internet or submit a paper ballot at select city centers. The government of Buenos Aires considers the final results of the BA Elige process to be binding, subject to budget constraints. 

Adoption: The top ranking proposals, both citywide and in each of the 15 individual city communes, are formalized for implementation and included in the next fiscal year budget during the month of September. Top ranked proposals are funded one by one until the budget is exhausted. Citizens can follow each project’s progress through the city’s open procurement portal and through a public works dashboard.  

How’s It Going?

The first two editions of the program achieved the following participation. 

2017

• New Proposals: 26,473*
• Votes: 140,995
• Winning Proposals: 239
• Most popular proposals: 
  • Avellaneda Park aerobic circuit, proposed by an avid runner and neighborhood organizer,
  • Use of solar energy in squares and parks, proposed by an 80-year-old resident to leave a legacy of caring for natural resources,
  • Electronic signaling at bus stops,
  • Cycling track in Sarmiento Park,
  • Electronic signaling in bus stops,
  • Electronic signaling at bus stops, 
  • Rewards Points Program—Zero Waste,
  • New park and green space in Caballito, next to the Club Ferrocarril Oeste, and 
  • Traffic light in Pedro Goyena and Thompson. 

*By comparison, online participatory budgeting platforms in Madrid, Paris, and Lisbon pulled in a combined total of about 14,000 ideas. 

2018

• New Proposals: 26,004
• Votes: 144,060
• Winning Proposals: 443 
• Most popular proposals: 
  • Awareness in school of environment and animal care,
  • Organic waste in schools,
  • Greenhouses/ terraces or hydroponics in schools,
  • Free sports classes,
  • Awareness of the waste of water,
  • Restoring athletics track Avellaneda Park,
  • Organics fairs,
  • Orchards in schools,
  • Notice of fines, and 
  • Security cameras. 

In the first edition, roughly a third of the proposals were transit-related including suggestions on bike sharing, bus routes, “next bus” data displays, parking meter payment methods, and traffic patterns. Some requests were popular throughout Buenos Aires, such as security cameras on streets with less lighting at night, while other highly ranked proposals were specific to the needs of individual communes. The city held a public ceremony to honor some of the residents submitting top ranked ideas. The administration also highlighted selected projects that seek to improve the city’s sustainability or inclusion, including solar panels on schools, traffic lights for the blind, and devices for the hearing impaired in theaters and other cultural spaces. 

Point of Contact

Manuela Maunier 
CEO 
Buenos Aires Elige 
[email protected]

Who Else Is Trying This?

• New York City, US: Participatory Budgeting in NYC introduced digital voting in its 2015–16 cycle to broaden participation and make voting and vote counting more efficient.
• Various locations: The open source Consul participation software, which was developed by Madrid and used by Buenos Aires, has been adopted by 100 institutions in 33 countries. These include youth participatory budgeting programs in Toledo, Spain and Krnajska Gora, Slovenia as well as a platform where students at the University of Girona, in Spain, can propose campus improvements. 

Additional Reading 
Beyond Protest: Examining the Decide Madrid Platform for Public Engagement 
What if Citizens Set City Budgets? An Experiment That Captivated the World—Participatory Budgeting—Might Be Abandoned in its Birthplace 

This action was originally developed for Big Bold Cities, an initiative of Living Cities and the National Democratic Institute (NDI); republished here with the permission of Living Cities.