Participatory Democracy versus Elitist Democracy: Lessons from Brazil

This work explores the reasons behind the interest in participatory democracy throughout the world, and explores, through a case study of Brazil, the promise of participatory democracy as a practical alternative to current civic disengagement/elitist democracy/retreats from democracy back to authoritarian politics. Nylen's exploration centres around one example of participatory democracy - "participatory budgeting" carried out in Brazil by the Workers' Party. Nylen thinks this example can be seen as representative of the type of participatory institutional reform being experimented with in many corners of the globe, including the US.