InstitutionClaim Cited
Porto Alegre turned part of its municipal budget into a recurring public decision process, linking neighborhood assemblies, redistributive criteria, elected delegates, technical review, and implementation—and revealing how participation weakens when government stops delivering.
Can residents exercise meaningful authority over scarce public investment without abandoning technical feasibility, citywide redistribution, or elected responsibility?
Organizational CaseClaim Cited
Kerala's People's Plan Campaign transferred a large share of state development spending to elected local governments and built a public sequence through which residents could name needs, deliberate priorities, design projects, and monitor delivery. The campaign made decentralization operational through mass training and repeated planning forums, while caste, gender, expertise, bureaucracy, and party power continued to shape whose knowledge became a funded plan.
What must accompany a transfer of public money so that decentralization becomes a usable civic capacity rather than an unfunded instruction?