User:Chena11356/Participatory budgeting by country/Monapm19 Peer Review

General info

 * Whose work are you reviewing?

@Hero49states


 * Link to draft you're reviewing
 * User:Chena11356/Participatory budgeting by country
 * Link to the current version of the article (if it exists)

Evaluate the drafted changes
Lead

While the lead was not updated, the article already mentions Spain, so this new content still fits in well with the overall article.

Content

The new content explains attempts to institute participatory budgeting in Spain. This add a lot to the article because the current section has a single sentence about Spanish initiatives. The content is very recent, while still tracing the history of initiatives, and is all relevant.

It would be helpful to explain Pineda Nebot's argument, especially related to the coordination issues.

It would also be helpful to communicate more details about the participatory budget process: for instance, a description of the way that citizens' views were aggregated in Cordoba.

Tone and Balance

The article might be able to do more to achieve balance. Specifically, an author that disagrees with Pineda Nebot's argument about the coordination issues, or an author that points to a different issue with participatory budgeting in Spain, would help show another side to the issue.

In the third paragraph, the author mentions that the experiments have no held "high-quality deliberations"; what exactly does that mean? Are there proponents of the Spanish model that disagree with that perspective?

Sources and References

The sources are mostly secondary sources, and they are all high-quality and trustworthy.

It would be helpful to link to some of the research mentioned in the third paragraph.

Organization

The article is well-organized by time period and is therefore easy to follow.

Line edits bolded:

Participatory budgeting projects in Spain accelerated in the early 2000s, typically as a result of left-wing party advocacy. [1] Left-wing municipal governments established participatory budgeting exercises in "Sevilla, Albacete, San Sebastián, Getafe, Leganés, Sabadell, Leganés, Segovia, Torrellano, Elche, Algeciras [and] Novelda."[2] Other municipalities that have, at one point, implemented participatory budgeting at some point include "Puente Genil, Cabezas de San Juan and Rubi."[3] As one of the first participatory budgeting experiments in Europe, participatory budgeting in Córdoba was influenced by other participatory exercises and originated from resistance to the Franco dictatorship in the 1970s and the experience in Porto Alegre, Brazil.[4]

Although participatory budgeting experiments across Spain seemed to provide deliberate spaces for participation of citizens, Ganuza and Francés suggest that these experiments decreased in number through 2010 because municipal governments did not change their decision-making processes to accommodate greater citizen involvement.[5] For example, the experiment in Córdoba was pushed by the municipal government and associations and only impacted up to 5% of the municipal budget throughout its existence .[6] Pineda Nebot elaborates that local governments across Spain struggle to coordinate between citizens who recommend specific spending priorities and the bureaucracy that implements the budget.[7]

In more recent times, participatory budgeting has resurged and expanded to some major cities, including Barcelona and Madrid. After left-wing parties won the Madrid municipal elections in 2015, a participatory budgeting experiment began, but the practice has faced problems with clear communication, transparency, and utilization of latest technology.[2] For example, Pineda Nebot and Pires believe that many of the experiments in Spain do not hold high-quality deliberations, though they suggest that adopting technological innovations could improve the process.[8] Looking at municipalities in the province of Barcelona, Parés agrees with previous research that finds that participatory budgeting in Spanish municipalities with smaller populations have been more successful.[9]