This paper examines the issue of empowerment in participatory budgeting (PB). We position empowerment as part of the generally agreed theory of change in PB yet acknowledge the limits of an individual construction of empowerment that neglect sufficient attention to dynamic relations of power in participatory spaces and surrounding social contexts. Using the three forms of power theorized by Lukes (1974) and Gaventa (1980), we examine the ways in which these forms of power constrain individual and collective agency and transformative outcomes in participatory projects. We shift the gaze from empowerment to the concept of community power to suggest that getting beyond small adjustments to local services and resource allocations to substantive changes in relations of power may depend on ordinary citizens coming together in sites of radical possibility to define themselves, deliberate, and then act.

本文探讨了参与式预算 (PB) 中的授权问题。我们将赋权定位为 PB 中普遍认可的变革理论的一部分，但承认个人赋权结构的局限性，忽视了对参与空间和周围社会环境中的动态权力关系的足够关注。利用 Lukes (1974) 和 Gaventa (1980) 理论化的三种权力形式，我们研究了这些权力形式限制个人和集体机构以及参与性项目中的变革性成果的方式。