The PT in government: direct democracy?
The Workers Party (PT) has just won a third term of municipal government in Porto
Alegre. Eight years of PT management in this southern city are unanimously recognised as Brazil's best example of municipal government in the service of the workers and the poor. Thomas Coutrot explains
FISCAL REFORM IS THE FIRST TASK OF ANY municipal government which aspires to social transformation. When the PT took control of Porto Alegre in 1988, sales and property taxes were badly collected, devalued by inflation, and based on outdated records. Just like in the rest of Brazil. Under the PT, rationalisation, re-registration and improved collection have increased Porto
Alegre's annual resources by 140%.
The local elite has denounced this "fiscal fury," but without success. No-one really believes that taxation is crushing the entrepreneur. And the citizens of Porto Alegre don't just elect their council, they decide exactly how the funds will be allocated.
*Participatory democracy: right up to the municipal budget" This PT electoral slogan has gradually been put into practice here, thanks to patient, serious work by the successive PT teams in the town hall.
The first thing the incoming PT team did in 1989 was to establish the most appropriate administrative division of the town. Popular consultations helped identify sixteen culturally and socially homogeneous zones, large enough to be viable planning units, but
"tight" enough to encourage democratic debate and a communal "life.
Next came the cautious re-definition of the relationship between the Town Hall, its various specialised institutions (road maintenance, cleaning services, the public transport utility, educational establishments,
26 International Viewpoint hospitals and health centres) and community groups (district groups, socio-cultural and sports groups and the trade unions.
The "participatory budget" is not about fixing the number of municipal workers and their salaries. The Town Hall negotiates these matters directly with the Municipal Workers trade union. Instead, the process aims to enable the population to formulate the priorities
In March, public meetings in each district elect local delegates, who help them establish a list of priorities for municipal investments in their district, and their urban sector as a whole. In May, these delegates elect two councillors to represent each urban district in the Participatory Budget Council (COP). They are joined by two representatives of each "thematic plenary groups:" trade union; ecology; culture; sports; small business development. The Municipal Workers trade union and the Union of Tenants nominate one councillor each. COP councillors are not paid, and cannot be re-elected twice. They report back to the district delegates at weekly
Every May, the new COP decides on the procedure it will follow to monitor the implementation of the existing budget, and the elaboration of the next year's budget. COP meetings are regular, and open to the public
The Town Hall integrates each urban sector's priorities into a draft "budget matrix." The municipality's various technical out to stuff their fiefs with as may monuments as will fit in one four-year mandate, leaving the costs to successors to handle. And no-where more so than in Rio... [where] the current wave of urban reform is... bold chaotic, autocratic and arbitrary. Not just the frenzy of public works snarl up the city's already congested traffic. Critics complain that it is merely cosmetic, more a facelift than the real surgery that Rio needs, and does little for public transport, education or health."!
In sharp contrast, PT Mayors in Porto Alegre have concentrated their efforts on improving living standards, public transport, health care and education. Decisions are made in a decentralised way, as close as possible to the people concerned. There is something predictable about popular choice. The top priorities are sewage, asphalt and housing. Not suprisingly, the right-wing ridicules what it calls this "rice and beans approach (arroz com feijao).
The 15,000 people who participated in last year's participatory budget represent less than 1% of the city's population. But they presumably reflected the aspirations of their relatives and neighbours. Opinion polls show that a majority of residents are aware of the participatory budget process, and appreciate it. This is a success for the PT team. Not simply in electoral terms (though only the PT is capable of implementing this project seriously) but in impregnating the popular consciousness with the conviction that each and every citizen can and should have their say on public policy, and how the money is 1. "The city of God, or someone," in The Economist, September 28th 1996, p.62