What conditions explain the activation of the participatory budget in the territories of Jalisco, Puebla and Mexico City in 2018? Based on the compared qualitative method (QCA), it is analyzed the political dimension of the activation of the public spending, which is directed as participatory budget in the three federative entities that launched this public policy in 2018. The text is divided in three parts: the first one presents the origin and definition of the participatory budget from a theoretical review, the second one presents a contextualization of the experiences in Mexico, and the third one explains the methodology and results of the compared analysis of the participatory budget in municipalities in Puebla and Jalisco as well as the territories in the 16 boroughs of Mexico City in 2018