Porto Alegre: when residents decide how their city is built
In 1989, Porto Alegre handed part of its municipal budget to citizens. Within nine years, water and sewage connections rose from 75% to 98% of households. The model has since been replicated in more than 11,500 cities around the world.
In 1989, the city of Porto Alegre in Brazil attempted an experiment: letting residents directly decide on part of the municipal budget. Not through consultation, not through polling — through collective deliberation and voting.
The results exceeded urban planners’ expectations. Between 1988 and 1997, household connection to water and sewage networks rose from 75% to 98%. The number of schools quadrupled. Municipal revenues grew by 269% between 1988 and 2004. Participation, below 1,000 people per year in 1990, reached 40,000 annual participants by 1999.
What happened in Porto Alegre is simple in principle: when residents choose the priorities, the priorities change — and projects find active support rather than passive indifference.
The model crossed borders. By 2024, more than 11,500 participatory budgeting processes were active worldwide, compared to 1,500 in 2014. Cities in France, Spain, Portugal, South Korea and Kenya have adapted the method to their own contexts.
The central idea remains the same: the people best placed to identify the needs of a neighbourhood are those who live there.
Further reading: Porto Alegre, 1989: When Residents Decided Where Public Money Went