Participatory Budgeting in Italy: A Phoenix Rising from the Ashes

Abstract

This chapter shows the evolutionary pattern of participatory budgeting in Italy in the last 20 years. In this period, a first phase of constant development (from 2001 to 2008) was followed by a rapid decline in the use of the tool (from 2009 to 2014). This contrasting trend can be connected with some limits in the application of participatory budgeting, such as an excessive link with politics and a scarce ability to make the process last. Beginning from about the middle of the last decade, there has instead been a change in the trend, recognisable in a return of attention to participatory policies, fuelled on the one hand by an awareness of political class and on the other hand by the positive feedback of some successful experiences, the example of which is spreading to the rest of Italy. The number of municipalities that have adopted participatory budgeting has begun to increase again, and the degree of the continuity of these practices has also intensified consistently from 2015 to 2019. In this new diffusion, the political class itself has played a central role, with the role of the conscious and proactive protagonist of this new course of participation in Italy. The growth stopped in 2020 with the COVID-19 crisis, even if this crisis has led people to feel the need for greater dialogue between citizens and administration. Therefore, the foundations have been laid to be able to resume, as soon as the operational conditions allow, the path of active participation that has already been undertaken.