The different participatory experiences emerging in Brazil during the decade of the 1990s came together, as Tatagiba has argued, in turning the country into "a hotbed of innovative management experiences". One outstanding experience is the Participatory Budgeting Orçamento Participativo (OP) Program, which over the course of the years has been the stage of intense debate and study, garnering both admirers and critics. Yet notwithstanding its fame and the many studies that have been made of it, few researchers have sought to evaluate the program's performance and sensitivity to municipal government. This article examines the participatory budget program in Porto Alegre within the period spanning 1989 to 2008, making specific analysis of the program's sensitivity to changes inadministration, that is, fromtheWorkers'Party(Partidodos Trabalhadores (PT))between 2001-2004 to the PMDB (Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement or Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro) from 2005-2008. In other words, we ask whether the change in the political party at the head of city government made a difference in terms of program performance. Our analysis indicates that the program has been highly influenced by the political party responsible for its implementation. This can be seen as evidence of low levels of institutionalization, even in the municipality where the program has been most successful, that is, in Porto Alegre.
Participatory Budgeting; Evaluation of Public Policy; Porto Alegre
