Orçamento Participativo de Lisboa (Lisbon Participatory Budget)

🤖 AI-generated summary of the sources below · 🔎 Last verified

This overview was generated with AI from the public sources listed below and checked against them before publication. It has not had a complete human fact-check — treat it as a starting point and follow the sources.

How this atlas is made · What “last verified” means

Lisbon became the first European capital to run a citywide participatory budget in 2008, letting residents submit and vote on capital projects online at lisboaparticipa.pt or by SMS since 2013. Twelve editions through 2021 funded 162 projects worth over €36 million from nearly 7,000 proposals. No edition has run since; a 2025 relaunch attempt failed for lack of consensus.

Suspended 📅 2008–2021
Scale🏙️ City-wide
Cost€2.5M/year (was €5M/year 2008-2010)

📊 Impact

Twelve editions between 2008 and 2021 received nearly 7,000 citizen proposals and funded 162 projects worth more than €36 million. Annual budget ran €5M (2008-2010) then €2.5M from 2011/12 onward. No edition has been held since 2021; a proposal for a 13th edition was withdrawn from a council vote in April 2025 for lack of consensus, and as of April 2026 the programme remained stalled with no announced restart date.

🎓 Lesson

A pioneering, well-used digital participation platform can sit dormant for years once a change of administration withdraws political backing — the portal stays online, but nothing new gets proposed or voted.

Sources

↗ Falanga, R. — "The Lisbon Participatory Budget: results and perspectives on an experience in slow but continuous transformation" (Field Actions Science Reports, peer-reviewed)Peer-reviewed: 2008 launch, lisboaparticipa.pt online portal for proposals and voting, SMS voting added 2013, budget €5M (2008-10) then €2.5M.
↗ Notícias ao Minuto — "Lisboa discutiu Orçamento Participativo. Sem consenso, votação foi adiada"12 editions 2008-2021, ~7,000 proposals, 162 projects, >€36M invested; April 2025 13th-edition proposal withdrawn for lack of consensus.
↗ Lisboa Para Pessoas — "Orçamento Participativo de Lisboa suspenso desde 2021"Independent corroboration of the same historical totals and the withdrawn 2025 new-model proposal.
📎 Cite this project

1001 Smart Cities (2026). “Orçamento Participativo de Lisboa (Lisbon Participatory Budget)” — Lisbon, Portugal. The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/projects/lisbon-participatory-budget/ (last verified 2026-08-07). Data: CC BY 4.0.

The underlying data is free to reuse with attribution — see the open data page.

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