Participatory budgeting may be one of the most obvious and straightforward ways of engaging the public in the affairs of government. It provides people with the opportunity of making very specific decisions about how their collective public money, or at least meaningful portions of it, will be spent. The origins of the idea began in Brazil in 1988 and it’s been embraced in a variety of urban locations around the world – possibly less so in the U.S., but it has taken root here in several cities and this piece gives you the backstory.