RATIONALES AND BARRIERS TO CITIZEN PARTICIPATION IN PUBLIC BUDGETING: A systematic literature review

Abstract

This study conducts a systematic literature review on citizen participation in public budgeting, focusing on understanding the rationales of participatory initiatives and the barriers to promoting significant change in public policies. It scrutinizes the data with a mixed-methods approach that involves conducting bibliometric and content analyses and develops analytical propositions to support future studies. The two main rationales of participatory mechanisms - political-electoral and good governance - are highlighted, and the barriers to effective citizen participation are discussed. Our findings suggest that to develop participatory innovations it is necessary to consider not only citizens’ capacities to understand public budgeting but also states’ capacities to speak citizens’ language and consider their voices. Future research may benefit from incorporating perspectives from the education field and from integrating technical and political views on public budgeting.

Toward sustainable governance with participatory budgeting

“…While PB is not a management tool itself, it can be defined as a mediating instrument between the two worlds of city management and citizens (Brun-Martos and Lapsley, 2017). Prior literature has recognized two goals of utilizing PB: to open the government and bring citizens closer as an evident part of administration and to strengthen democracy and trust with direct participation in decision-making (Pereira and Figueira, 2022). In support of these missions, PB can enhance both democratic accountability and effective city management by promoting transparency (Brun-Martos and Lapsley, 2017).…”

“…Prior PB literature has also framed PB as a form of good governance and interpreted a disconnection between governments and citizens as the result of bad public governance. This perspective assumes that governments do not effectively solve the problems they are supposed to address because of a range of factors, including a limited capacity to respond to voices, a lack of transparency, a low-quality regulatory system, corruption, and weak rule of law (Pereira and Figueira, 2022). PB can be seen as one solution since it represents an initiative to increase openness and effectively attain the ideals of good governance (Fung, 2015).…”

“…Participatory budgeting in the context of sustainability PB can be defined as a practice built on the active participation of citizens in budgetary decisions with the aim of influencing resource allocation (Bartocci et al, 2023). Prior literature has typically presented two distinct approaches to PB: the radical democratic approach, which involves issues of deliberation and large-scale institutional changes; and the liberal governance approach, which understands PB as a more modest institutional modification (Pereira and Figueira, 2022). PB approaches vary greatly and may range from limited citizen participation in one part of the budget to openness to all citizens in a combination of direct and representative democracy and deliberation (Bartocci et al, 2023).…”