Abstract

ANNUNZIATA, Rocío. Decision and Deliberation in Non-electoral Forms of Participation in Argentina: The Case of the Participatory Budget. Estud. Polit. [online]. 2013, n.43, pp.115-135. ISSN 0121-5167.

This paper asks how to understand the processes of citizen decision and deliberation in contemporary forms of participation, focusing on the Participatory Budget in Argentina. It defends the thesis that it is not possible to ensure without nuances that citizens deliberate and decide in these forums. The analytical strategy aims to integrate the advances of the studies on collective decision and deliberation into the analyses of concrete practices of citizen activity, through qualitative research, consisting mainly in interviews and participant observations in the Participatory Budget sessions. The conclusion is that the more meaningful exchanges, between citizens and local authorities, do not fit in deliberative models, but they occur in the form of a "testimony-listening" pair; and that the more frequent rule for decision-making is the "apparent consensus" rule, under situations where inequalities of influence appear to be legitimate. The originality of this approach lies in the combination of recent theoretical developments with observation of empirical experiences.

Keywords : Citizen Participation; Political Decision; Deliberative Democracy; Participatory Budget.

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