And the traditional rotation of party symbols at the state offices never reflected on the scale of embezzlement – people change, but the schemes remain untouched. How can we fight this disease in our environment? In Latin America the problem with solved through introduction of public control over the budget process. In this context, participatory budgeting in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre was an impressive story of success: just in few years the main budget issues at the city were adopted through general assemblies and the quality of life in the city reached its highest level in Brazil.
For more details about citizens participation in budgeting, please, see the report «Civil control of public funds: participatory budgeting for Ukraine» (ukr).