The Poitou-Charentes Region has decided to make of participatory democracy a structuring dimension of its policies. It is a choice for the long term, aimed at:

• influencing all the scope of its competences
• transforming, progressively though straighforwardly, ways of doing and habits

 
It is a choice of principle: trusting the capacity of jugement, propositon and participation to decisions of all.
It is a choice of method: more transparency and democracy for more efficency and solidarity
It is a political choice: reboosting social links and acting in a fairest manner, allowing everyone to experience and practice his/her power of citizen to influence the future with others.

 
How does the BPL work?
Core of the Region's competences, high-school policies have naturally embodied a favourable ground for experimenting a performant tool, namely participatory budgeting. Since 2005, pupils, their parents, and the employees of the 93 high-schools of the Region are invited to decide of the allocation of 10 millions euros, to live and study better in the high-school.
Two meetings are held in each high-school, organized by independent facilitators, representatives of the Regional government and of the public administration. At the first meeting, after the presentation of the process, participants deliberate in small groups on projects that could improve live in the high-school. Each group then apoints a speaker, who presents a synthesis of the discussions in front of the general assemby.
In the following weeks, the technical services evaluate the proposals, assessing whether they enter within the reach of the Regional competences, judging whether their are technically viable and determining their potential cost.
At the second metting, particicipants deliberate on the accuracy of the proposals. They are then granted 10 ballots each, and are free to vote for the different projets that have been expertised. Proposals are thus ranked according to the number of votes they received. The Regional council is committed to respect this ranking and to implement in each high-school a maximum of projects, withing the 10 millions euros budget.
After three years, 706 projets have thus been financed, allowing the realization of important works and the aquisition of equipements improving material conditions and life in high-schools.

 
Sharing decisions to take the good ones
High-school Participatory Budget opens a unique and equalitarian space of expresion in schools, where collective discussion allows hearing and understanding better the viewpoints of the different categories of users. It has also a pedagogical aspect, allowing a form of schooling in active citizenship and a better understing of the public decision-making processes. Similarly, it strenghtens the visibility of the regional institution in high-schools, contributing to fight the sentiment of abandon felt by citizens towards politics. It also incentivates public administration to modernize: the growing inclusion of user knowledge and the better responsiveness of regional services towards citizens' demands embodies one of the great successes of the high-school Participatory Budget.