Recoge: Democracia, participación ciudadana y transformación social.- Participación y poder : de la legitimación al conflicto.- Participación y ciudadanía : implicaciones psicológicas en los procesos de participación.- Globalización política y nuevas formas de participación de la agencia humana. Desarrollo sostenible, políticas sociales y participación.- ¿Democracia participativa + desarrollo sostenible = democracia ambiental? Preguntas y cuestiones para la democratización ecológica.- Calidad de la democracia y participación en América Latina.- El desarrollo comunitario y el proceso de construcción de comunidades democráticas.- ¿Presupuestos participativos como instrumento de transformación? Montevideo, algunas interrogantes sobre la participación, la descentralización y el cambio.- El reto de la descentralización participativa en el ámbito local, un acercamiento a los problemas y las disyuntivas.- Participación ciudadana y capital social en el País Vasco.- Redes sociales, espacio de encuentro y construcción colectiva del conocimiento.

This open access volume analyses the development of democracy at different levels of governance (from local to global). The Basque search for an institutional and democratic model that adapts to its social needs and solves its problems offers an interesting perspective for analyzing the way in which democracy is seeking new forms of materialization from the local to the global. The volume is divided into four parts. The chapters in Part I analyze the tensions between the neoliberal vision of democracy and the voices contesting it, with projections at different levels of government. The chapters in Part II focus on the emerging framework and scales of Western democracy. The chapters in Part III present new forms of citizen participation, paying special - though not exclusive - attention to new practical strategies for Basque society. The volume concludes with a block of chapters on the relevance of reviewing the methodological and epistemological frameworks from which knowledge about democracy and mechanisms of citizen participation is generated (Part IV). By delving deeper into the idea and practice of democratic governance, this volume will be of interest to researchers and students from all disciplines of politics, international relations, sociology and law.

This book explores the international diffusion of Participatory Budgeting (PB), a local policy created in 1989 in Porto Alegre, Brazil, which has now spread worldwide. The book argues that the action of a group of individuals called “Ambassadors of Participation” was crucial to make PB part of the international agenda. This international dimension has been largely overlooked in the vast literature produced on participatory democracy devices. The book combines public policy analysis and the study of international relations, and makes a broad comparative study of PB, including cases from Latin America, Europe, and Sub-Saharan Africa. The book also presents a new methodology developed to examine PB diffusion, the “transnational political ethnography”, which combines in-depth interviews, participant observation and document analysis both at the local and transnational level.

Recently in the Dominican Republic, a pro-municipal social alliance pressed for decentralization and politicians yielded, seeking power in three-party competition. This study examines how electoral, financial, and administrative power has been dispersed and suggests innovative strategies to maintain decentralizing momentum.