Reality Check on Children’s Participation in the Governance of Barra Mansa, Brazil

Abstract

This paper comments on the direction in which the children’s participatory budget council, established in 1998 in Barra Mansa, Brazil, has gone since 2001 when changes in the political party governing the municipality took place. Tracking the progress made, this paper argues that this once innovative and promising initiative has been watered down to the extent that its potential to recognize and draw on children’s active citizenship and agency in processes of urban governance has been considerably weakened.