Description

When, at the end of 2010, the Cascais Town Hall decided to start the process of preparation for the implementation of the Participatory Budget (PB) the following year, the only certainty was the Executive’s willingness to explore new ways of promoting active citizenship, strengthen the areas of participation and reinforce the dialogue mechanisms with the Inhabitants of Cascais.

This basic condition was not, however, sufficient to dispel the many doubts that the team had to face as the initiative’s start date approached. Its first big test was on June 15, 2011, when at 6:30 pm the first Public Participation Session began at the Alto da Part School, in Alcabideche. From that day until today, the Cascais PB has not stopped growing and has become a hallmark of the Municipality’s governance, a reference at national level, and an example that has attracted progressive interest from foreign delegations that travel purposefully to Portugal just to know the project.

The recognition achieved by Cascais PB and the need felt by the Municipality to account for this process are the two main ingredients that led to the need to create this publication. For this, the monitoring system implemented since the beginning of the PB to monitor the implementation and evolution of this initiative in the Municipality proved to be extremely useful.

With this book, the second one dedicated to the PB within a six-year period, the Town Hall wants to share the methods (Part I) adopted for the process, the results achieved in the period under review, and then publicise the “life stories” of the winning projects (Part II).

These include dynamics not always known, of great innovation, as well as the ability to mobilise, whose merit entirely belongs to the Inhabitants of Cascais. The promoters of the winning ideas were interviewed and explained how they consolidated the proposals, the discussions held, along with the strategies they adopted to involve others. They are narratives of enormous wealth, which allow explaining the PB beyond the numbers and make us believe in the power of citizenship.

Title A wave of citizenship always on the rise

Authors Nelson Dias e Vanessa Duarte de Sousa

Publication Cascais Town Hall

Printing Letras100Limites

Tiragem 1000 exemplares

Design Ana Rita Garcia | Isabel Silvéria | Melanie Marques

ISBN 978-972-637-280-6

Legal Deposit Lorem Ipsum

Book