It is impossible to understand the participatory methods of the lrazilian Workers’ Party (PT) without recognizing the
important contribution made by educator Paulo Freire. A supporter of the PT until he died in 1997, Freire saw edu-
cation as a transformative tool that could create experiences of a truly equal and democratic nature, which people
would then be inspired to reproduce. He had observed the way we ape and imitate traditional relationships of power and then reproduce them when we ourselves gain any kind of power. The goal of his education was to break this pattern and thus obstruct the reproduction of established power. His
emphasis on cultural, as well as political and economic, transformation is echoed in the PT’s participatory methods
of government. The PT does not simply seek to get into office, occupy the driving seat and drive the machinery of state towards the poor. Rather, it aims, in municipalities like Porto Alegre, to open up the state machinery and involve
all ctizens-the poor especially-in deciding how it should work, a collaborative process that is both personally and socially transformative. Such transformations need constant cultural nourishment too.
The Freire model of education as transformation provides an insight to the paradox of a process, facilitated by the
government, which produces a form of cmizens’ power that is a democratic check on the apparatus of the state.
The participatory budget process is coordinated by the local government, just as a Freirian teacher coordinates the
education process-in both cases frameworks are open to change and in both cases it is assumed that citizens have
their own demands, organization and knowledge. Thus, just as the teacher assumes that “students” already have
knowledge, and treats education as a collaboration, so it was always part of the PT’s political understanding that it
would share with the community whatever power it gained through electoral success, and also be open to their
knowledge.
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