Uma análise crítica sobre a efetividade democrática do orçamento participativo: estudo de caso da sua execução na cidade de Palmas/TO

Abstract

This research aimed to critically assess the democratic effectiveness of the Participatory Budget in Palmas, Tocantins, by measuring the budgetary and financial execution index of public policies selected by the population. The study was based on the premise that popular participation instruments can serve as mechanisms to strengthen democracy and expand active citizenship. The main objective was to evaluate whether the decisions made by the population through the participatory budget were, in fact, incorporated and implemented by the public administration, considering the budget laws (PPA, LDO, and LOA) for the fiscal years 2022 and 2023. To conduct the research, an exploratory and descriptive case study was employed, with both qualitative and quantitative approaches, grounded in bibliographic and documentary research to achieve the results. The data sources included official documents such as the 2022– 2025 Multi-Year Plan, Budget Guidelines Law, Annual Budget Laws, and the physical and financial execution reports of the actions prioritized by the population. The results demonstrate that, although the municipality of Palmas formally adopts participation mechanisms, the budgetary and physical execution of the chosen actions reveals limitations regarding the effectiveness of popular decisions. Among the identified issues are low physical target execution, reduction and even cancellation of prioritized actions, lack of transparency and dissemination regarding actions/implementations, and low societal participation. It is concluded that the participatory budget, despite representing a significant institutional advancement in the field of democratic governance, still faces limitations in effectively fulfilling the elected demands, which compromises the full realization of this direct participation instrument. The study contributes to the academic and technical debate on the implementation of participatory public policies and points to paths for improving social control mechanisms and popular participation in budgetary planning.