Cascais’ Participatory Budget: an inspiring example

  Eddy Adams, URBACT Programme Expert investigates Cascais (PT) home to one of Europe’s most effective Participatory Budget (PB) models, awarded the URBACT Good Practice label for Bridging the Gap. The city is building on this through a range of further tools to support and encourage citizen participation.   Most city officials would be satisfied to get one of Europe’s most successful Participatory Budget (PB) models up and running. But Isabel Xavier isn’t like most city officials. Despite the success of the Cascais Participatory Budget, she sees it as part of a wider process to embed and sustain democratic processes in the city. As she puts it: “Participatory Budget is a product. Sooner or later it’s going to die ...