[ Le budget participatif à l’épreuve des espoirs et des incertitudes de la participation dans la municipalité de Parakou ]
Rodrigue Sèdjrofidé Montcho1
1 Département de Sociologie-Anthropologie, Université de Parakou, Faculté des Lettres, Arts et Sciences Humaines, Parakou, Benin
Original language: French
Copyright © 2026 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Participatory budgeting is an ongoing experience in the municipality of Parakou in the Republic of Benin. This ongoing process sheds light on the relationship between principals and those mandated in the ongoing local development and decentralization process. This research aims to analyze the fulfilled or disappointed hopes and the uncertainties of the participatory budget of the municipality of Parakou. In a mixed approach, the questionnaire and the interview guide made it possible to collect data from 384 informants identified by reasoned choice and cluster techniques. It appears that the participatory budget mechanism in the municipality of Parakou comes to provide a response to the lack of participation and takes into account some priorities of the Community. But the participatory challenge has not yet been fully met. We have the impression of being in a partial process of participation which mobilizes the representatives instead of taking into account all the actors of the population in a perspective of global financial citizenship. The resources to achieve this are complex, particularly in communities with large populations, but it will be necessary to innovate with a good perspective of overall inclusion and not of selection for the purposes of good governance and budgetary democracy.
Author Keywords: participatory budget, hopes, uncertainties, municipality, Parakou, budgetary democracy.
Rodrigue Sèdjrofidé Montcho1
1 Département de Sociologie-Anthropologie, Université de Parakou, Faculté des Lettres, Arts et Sciences Humaines, Parakou, Benin
Original language: French
Copyright © 2026 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Participatory budgeting is an ongoing experience in the municipality of Parakou in the Republic of Benin. This ongoing process sheds light on the relationship between principals and those mandated in the ongoing local development and decentralization process. This research aims to analyze the fulfilled or disappointed hopes and the uncertainties of the participatory budget of the municipality of Parakou. In a mixed approach, the questionnaire and the interview guide made it possible to collect data from 384 informants identified by reasoned choice and cluster techniques. It appears that the participatory budget mechanism in the municipality of Parakou comes to provide a response to the lack of participation and takes into account some priorities of the Community. But the participatory challenge has not yet been fully met. We have the impression of being in a partial process of participation which mobilizes the representatives instead of taking into account all the actors of the population in a perspective of global financial citizenship. The resources to achieve this are complex, particularly in communities with large populations, but it will be necessary to innovate with a good perspective of overall inclusion and not of selection for the purposes of good governance and budgetary democracy.
Author Keywords: participatory budget, hopes, uncertainties, municipality, Parakou, budgetary democracy.
Abstract: (french)
Le budget participatif est une expérience en cours dans la municipalité de Parakou en République du Bénin. Ce processus en cours permet de mettre en lumière la relation entre mandants et mandatés dans le processus du développement local et de décentralisation en cours. Cette recherche vise à analyser les espoirs comblés ou déçus et les incertitudes du budget participatif de la commune de Parakou. Dans une démarche mixte, le questionnaire et le guide d’entretien ont permis de collecter des données auprès de 384 informateurs identifiés par les techniques du choix raisonné et par grappes. Il apparait que le dispositif participatif du budget dans la municipalité de Parakou vient apporter une réponse au déficit de participation et prend en compte quelques priorités de la Communauté. Mais le défi participatif n’est pas encore entièrement relevé. On a l’impression d’être dans un processus partiel de participation qui mobilise les représentants au lieu de prendre en compte l’ensemble des acteurs de la population dans une perspective de citoyenneté financière globale. Les ressources pour y arriver sont complexes notamment dans des communautés de forte démographie, mais il faudra innover dans une bonne perspective d’inclusion globale et non de sélection aux fins d’une bonne gouvernance et d’une démocratie budgétaire.
Author Keywords: budget participatif, espoirs, incertitudes, municipalité, Parakou, démocratie budgétaire.
