To the analogic to digital: democracy, internet and participative budgeting

Abstract

This article focuses on the popular participation in the democratic system mediated by the internet. The theoretical part is based in a view that the democracy and political system have a crisis of legitimacy. Currently this situation is intensified by the speed and influence of new technologies creating a new type of participation in public management, called e-democracy. A recent case of electronic democracy in the Brazilian is the focus of this article: the Digital Participatory Budget in Belo Horizonte - MG. This article explores this experience, identifying characteristics and charting its history. The trajectory of participatory budget "analogical" was recovering, until the digital version. The methodology used is a single case study and the research is a analytical interpretation. The methods employed were the Direct Observation and Documentary Research. We come to the conclusion that the potential of information technology was appropriated by Digital Participatory Budget. However is cautioned about the risk of falling into one of these initiatives and instrumentalism of e-democracy so that, in this case, more participation is not necessarily more democracy.