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Diálogo Regional sobre Sociedad de la Información Strengthening the Participatory Budgeting Process through the Use of Internet The Case of Miraflores (Lima, Perú) Laura León Instituto de Estudios Peruanos - DIRSI ACORN-REDECOM (Brasilia) 14 May 2010

Contents  Introduction  Methodology  Analytical framework  The case of Miraflores • Research context • Project perspective • Socio-technique perspective • Democratic perspective  Conclusions

Introduction  “the interactive nature of Internet technology has the potential to reinvigorate the democratic process and re- engage citizens positively in political life” (McCullagh, 2003:1).  ICTs as a promise to overcome the lack of trust and interest of citizens in politics?

Methodology  Case study methodology.  Information source: municipality of Miraflores.  Municipality website.  Observation of the e-vote tool.  Limitations: no collection of information from citizens.

Analytical Framework Source: Demo-net (2008)

The Case of Miraflores Research context  Participatory Budgeting (PB): a public management tool and a direct democracy mechanism used to direct public resources by citizens.  Miraflores • District of Lima. • High level of HDI, not a poor district. • Since 2004 Miraflores implements the PB. • 69,027 residents (INEI, 2007) . • Access to ICT (Internet, cable TV, mobile and fixed line telephony). • It is the first application of ICT for citizen participation in Peru.

Project Perspective  Creation of a municipal ordinance to promote citizen participation: • Allows any resident to participate. • Enlarges the amount of financial resources involved. • Binding character of the agreements. • Use of Internet.

Project Perspective  Use of Internet as a tool to: • Announce the call for participation. • Register the participants. • Publish the presentations of the training sessions, workshop minutes and the accountability reports. • Vote. • Spread the agreements.

Project Perspective Adoption levels (Vaz, 2009) Miraflores Participatory Budget To provide information about the PB process. The information is published in the website. To provide information about the The information about de development of the implementation process, monitoring the process is published. timeline, showing which are concluded or in process. To provide information about the progress of This information is published but not updated the implementation of the selected and its format and language make it difficult projects, allowing social control. to understand. This information is published in the financial transparency section, not in the PB one. Presentation and discussion of new ideas and There is no tool available for receiving nor projects through the Internet. discuss ideas. Discussions and debates should be face to face in the meetings. Miraflores ’ PB has an e-vote plataform E-vote. Fuente: Elaboración propia a partir de Vaz (2009), traducción propia, y Miraflores (2010). Internet adoption levels for Participatory Budgeting applied to the Miraflores case study

Socio-technical Perspective  Internet was chosen as a tool due to high access to this technology and “ computer literacy ”.  Computer available for voting in the municipality.  The e-vote platform is simple and easy to use.  Information of the investment projects is available.

Democratic Perspective Year Number of residents that voted Percentage of voters in relation to population allowed to vote 2007 427 0.61 2008 3000 4.34 2009 2000 2.89 Source: Municipalidad de Miraflores y DNPP (2010). Number of e-votes and its equivalency in percentage of the population allowed to vote, 2007-2010

Conclusions  Internet is just one strategy to increase citizen participation.  The project has a shortage in tools that can generate an online public sphere.  The analysis suggests that the project is increasing participation. The democratic context is a key factor.  The increase of participation is based in: • Access to technology • Computer literacy and abilities • Interest and motivation of the participants • Political will and commitment to citizen participation

Laura León lleon@iep.org.pe Diálogo Regional sobre IEP Instituto de Estudios Peruanos Sociedad de la Información Av. Horacio Urteaga 694 Horacio Urteaga 694 Lima 11, Perú Jesús María, Lima - PERU Teléfonos: ( 51-1) 3326194 / 4244856 Fax: (51-1) 3326173 www.iep.og.pe info@dirsi.net www.dirsi.net

This case study was developed with the financial support of Logolink International / Instituto Polis (Brazil). Este documento cuenta con una licencia Creative Commons del tipo: Reconocimiento - No comercial - Compartir bajo la misma licencia 2.5 Perú Usted puede: copiar, distribuir y comunicar públicamente la obra y hacer obras derivadas, bajo las condiciones establecidas en la licencia: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/pe/legalcode Se sugiere citar este documento de la siguiente forma: León, Laura. Strengthening the Participatory Budgeting Process through the Use of Internet [diapositivas]. Brasilia: DIRSI, 2010.