The promise and limitations of participatory budgeting

Petite, Wesley

doi:10.1111/capa.12385

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…It is a democratic process that gives citizens the opportunity to determine how part of the municipal or state budget is spent. Participatory budgeting is a set of structured measures for citizens to make direct decisions about spending state or local government money, which must be implemented by the organizer of the participatory budget [12]. Participatory budgeting activities are proposed by citizens and not the ideas of officials, however, there are concerns that due to limited resources and state policies, it may not develop democratically [13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organization of Participatory Budget (Pb) Development in Latvian Municipalities

Linina,

Jansevica,

Vevere

2024

ETR

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In recent years, negative trends have been observed in Latvia in connection with society's reluctance to get involved in political processes and, therefore, also in state and local government administration. The number of voters who voted in the 2017 local government elections in the amount of 50.39% was assessed as an alarming indicator. In the municipal elections of 2021, when only 34.01% of eligible voters voted, the result causes alarm. The results of the elections and studies show that there is alienation of the population from the government and the current trust in the state administration is very low. Citizens do not believe that they can influence the development and management processes of the state and local governments. One of the reasons for distrust is the lack of feedback from the municipality or the inability or unwillingness of the municipality to solve the problems raised by the residents. The need to ensure public participation is defined in several regulatory acts of the Republic of Latvia. Residents' involvement is a long-term process, in which the prerequisite is the building of trust between the municipality and the residents. If citizens have the opportunity to determine how a part of the municipal budget will be spent, municipalities will promote democratic values and the opportunity to participate in the decision-making process. Participatory budget in local governments is one of the ways to try to bring citizens closer to local government. By 2025 in Latvia, it must be included in the municipal budget. The aim of the work is to find out the readiness of Latvian local governments to plan a participation budget in 2025 in the amount specified in the Law on Local Governments. The tasks of the work are to study the findings of various authors on public participation and the participatory budget, to analyse the normative documents on the participatory budget adopted in Latvia and to conduct a situational study of the experience of local governments and their readiness to implement a participatory budget by 2025. Methods used in the work - monographic method, analysis of various theoretical sources, regulatory acts, sociological research method - interview, - for finding out the opinion of experts and logically constructive method - for forming judgments and recommendations.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organization of Participatory Budget (Pb) Development in Latvian Municipalities

Linina,

Jansevica,

Vevere

2024

ETR

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“…It is often taken for granted that because projects are participatory in nature that there are few to no power struggles. Some of the critiques targeted towards PB are: 1) whether participants and conveners reflect the population (Meléndez & Martinez-Cosio, 2021); 2) the authority to produce PB rules and provisions (Su, 2017;; 3) the importance of politicians in the process (Saguin, 2018); 4) that PB projects do not address institutional change (Petite, 2020); and 5) that smaller and/or poorer municipalities lack funding, human capital and structural operations to execute PB projects (Gordon et al, 2017). All these issues are related to power and positionality.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Power and Positionality in Participatory Budgeting

Martínez

2022

American Behavioral Scientist

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There have been few analyses that discuss how power relations present in participatory budgeting (PB) may hinder or facilitate the future of PB. Drawing from PB examples in the United States we discuss the importance of power and positionality analyses during PB stages with the most deliberative participation for community members: forming steering committees, holding local assemblies, and selecting budgets. We discuss power struggles that stem from the lack of transparency in establishing budgets and representing implicated actors in communities. We discuss the importance of analyzing the positionality of municipal actors and community members throughout the life of PB projects. The paper ends by suggesting lessons that future PB initiatives can glean from community-based participatory research (CBPR) in public health, specifically, engaging in co-learning processes, capacity building among all partners, and the equitable distribution of resources between communities. These CBPR principles may facilitate countering narratives about community participation and foment institutional change in the ways local jurisdictions allocate PB budgets and prioritize policy agendas.

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