This article presentsthe results of a research on two participative practices carried out intwo of Rome’s municipalities, namely Participatory Budgeting and thecollection of comments on the City’s new master plan. Practices arecompared through a typology based one hand on their impacts on thepolitical and institutional systems {expressed by a «consultative vs.decisional» continuum} and on the other hand on the kinds of socialinteraction {«aggregative vs. deliberative»}. Explanations of thedifferentiated nature of the analyzed practices are found in severalindependent variables, such as the specific public policy domain thathosts each practice, practice regulations, their creators’ andpromoters’ political cultures and strategies. A final question concernstwo alternative scenarios : practices of deliberative democracy mayeither be penned into policy niches, thus not affecting major decisionswithin the urban context, or be an ingredient of policies for commongoods, alternative to the neo-liberal policies that have beenprevailing in many cities’ agendas over the last 20 years.
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