Citizen-centred design of participatory budgeting: A transnational study in the Baltic Sea Region

Authors

  • Hans-Henning Schult University of Rostock
  • Ellen Haustein University of Rostock
  • Peter Christoph Lorson University of Rostock
  • Gabriele Burbulyte-Tsiskarishvili Klaipeda University
  • Jaroslav Dvorak Klaipeda University
  • Lotta-Maria Sinervo Tampere University
  • Kaisa Kurkela Tampere University
  • Dmitrii Trutnev ITMO University

Abstract

Among the success factors of participatory budgeting (PB), Barbera et al. (2016b) discuss responsiveness, in terms of “continuous attention to citizens’ needs” and the capacity to address collective needs. To date, there are diverse PB cases, that follow a managerial, more technocratic (less focused on citizens) logic, whereas others target radical democratic change or good governance improvement (focused on linking citizens with the public administration and enhancing transparency) (Bartocci et al. 2019; Cabannes and Lipietz 2018). This paper aims to identify contingency factors, such as national, local and individual factors that influence the design of PB. Thus, a comparative approach is sought by analysing the needs of citizens in 17 municipalities in six European countries along the Baltic Sea region from originally 20,000 persons via a joint questionnaire. Relying on non-parametric tests, this analysis aims to identify links between citizens’ satisfaction, knowledge and expectations of their own involvement in the PB design and how it should be used from their perspective. The contribution of the paper is a critical rethinking of the respective stages and content of the PB creation processes from the citizens’ point of view by highlighting which contingency factors drive citizens’ views on PB design stages.

Author Biographies

Hans-Henning Schult, University of Rostock

Chair for Accounting, Management Control and Auditing

Ellen Haustein, University of Rostock

Chair for Accounting, Management Control and Auditing

Peter Christoph Lorson, University of Rostock

Chair for Accounting, Management Control and Auditing

Gabriele Burbulyte-Tsiskarishvili, Klaipeda University

Department of Public Administration and Political Sciences

Jaroslav Dvorak, Klaipeda University

Department of Public Administration and Political Sciences

Lotta-Maria Sinervo, Tampere University

Faculty of Management and Business (MAB)

Kaisa Kurkela, Tampere University

Faculty of Management and Business (MAB)

Dmitrii Trutnev, ITMO University

eGovernance Centre

References

Aleksandrov, E.; A. Bourmistrov and G. Grossi 2018. "Participatory budgeting as a form of dialogic accounting in Russia." Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal 31 (4): 1098–1123.

Babbie, E. R. 2012. "The Practice of Social Research. Andover: Cengage Learning Emea.

Baiocchi, G. and E. Ganuza 2014. "Participatory Budgeting as if Emancipation Mattered." Politics & Society 42 (1): 29–50.

Barbera, C.; M. Sicilia and I. Steccolini. 2016a. "The Participatory Budgeting as a Form of Co-Production. Pp. 27–39 M. Fugini; E. Bracci; M. Sicilia, ed., Co-production in the Public Sector. Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Barbera, C.; M. Sicilia and I. Steccolini 2016b. "What Mr. Rossi Wants in Participatory Budgeting: Two R’s (Responsiveness and Representation) and Two I’s (Inclusiveness and Interaction)." International Journal of Public Administration 39 (13): 1088–1100.

Bartocci, L.; G. Grossi and S. G. Mauro 2019. "Towards a hybrid logic of participatory budgeting." International Journal of Public Sector Management 32 (1): 65–79.

Bassoli, M. 2012. "Participatory Budgeting in Italy: An Analysis of (Almost Democratic) Participatory Governance Arrangements." International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 36 (6): 1183–1203.

Beckett, J. and C. S. King 2002. "The challenge to improve citizen participation in public budgeting: a discussion." Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management 14 (3): 463–485.

Brun-Martos, M. I. and I. Lapsley 2017. "Democracy, governmentality and transparency: participatory budgeting in action." Public Management Review 19 (7): 1006–1021.

Cabannes, Y. 2004. "Participatory budgeting: a significant contribution to participatory democracy." Environment and Urbanization 16 (1): 27–46.

Cabannes, Y. and B. Lipietz 2018. "Revisiting the democratic promise of participatory budgeting in light of competing political, good governance and technocratic logics." Environment and Urbanization 30 (1): 67–84.

Caiden, G. 1968. "Administrative Reform." International Review of Administrative Sciences 34 (4): 347–354.

Campbell, M.; O. Escobar; C. Fenton and P. Craig 2018. "The impact of participatory budgeting on health and wellbeing: a scoping review of evaluations." BMC public health 18 (1): 822.

Coleman, S. and R. Cardoso Sampaio 2017. "Sustaining a democratic innovation: a study of three e-participatory budgets in Belo Horizonte." Information, Communication & Society 20 (5): 754–769.

Cooper, T. L.; T. A. Bryer and J. W. Meek 2006. "Citizen-Centered Collaborative Public Management." Public Administration Review 66 (1): 76–88.

Dowding, K. and P. John 2008. "The Three Exit, Three Voice and Loyalty Framework: A Test with Survey Data on Local Services." Political Studies 56 (2): 288–311.

Ebdon, C. and A. L. Franklin 2006. "Citizen Participation in Budgeting Theory." Public Administration Review 66 (3): 437–447.

Franklin, A. L.; A. T. HO and C. Ebdon 2009. "Participatory Budgeting in Midwestern States: Democratic Connection or Citizen Disconnection?" Public Budgeting & Finance 29 (3): 52–73.

Goldfrank, B. 2007. "Lessons from Latin America’s Experience with Participatory Budgeting. Participatory Budgeting. Pp. 91–126 A. Shah, ed., Participatory Budgeting. Washington, DC: World Bank.

Grillos, T. 2017. "Participatory Budgeting and the Poor: Tracing Bias in a Multi-Staged Process in Solo, Indonesia." World Development 96 : 343–358.

Haldma, T. and K. Kenk 2014. "Development of Estonian local government accounting: the stages of evolution during the years 1991–2013." Zeszyty Teoretyczne Rachunkowości 2014 ((78)134): 109–130.

He, B. 2011. "Civic engagement through participatory budgeting in China: Three different logics at work." Public Administration and Development 31 (2): 122–133.

Jorge, S. and G. Mattei. 2016. "Contingency Model of Reforms in Public Sector Accounting. Pp. 1–15 A. Farazmand, ed., Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Justice, J. B. and C. Dülger 2009. "Fiscal transparency and authentic citizen participation in public budgeting: the role of third-party intermediation." Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management 21 (2): 254–288.

Kim, S. and J. Lee 2012. "E-Participation, Transparency, and Trust in Local Government." Public Administration Review 72 (6): 819–828.

Kim, S. and H. L. Schachter 2013. "Citizen Participation in the Budget Process and Local Government Accountability: Case Studies of Organizational Learning from the United States and South Korea." Public Performance & Management Review 36 (3): 456–471.

Krenjova, J. and R. Raudla 2013. "Participatory Budgeting at the Local Level: Challenges and Opportunities for New Democracies." Halduskultuur - Administrative Culture 14 (1): 18–46.

Lerner, J. 2011. "Participatory budgeting: Building community agreement around tough budget decisions." National Civic Review 100 (2): 30–35.

Lim, S. and Y. Oh 2016. "Online Versus Offline Participation: Has the Democratic Potential of the Internet Been Realized? Analysis of a Participatory Budgeting System in Korea." Public Performance & Management Review 39 (3): 676–700.

Lüder, K. 2002. "Research in Comparative Governmental Accounting Over the Last Decade — Achievements and Problems —. Pp. 1–21 V. Montesinos; J. M. Vela, ed., Innovations in Governmental Accounting. Boston, MA: Springer US.

Mcclurg, S. D. 2003. "Social Networks and Political Participation: The Role of Social Interaction in Explaining Political Participation." Political Research Quarterly 56 (4): 449–464.

Mchran, M. and G. Pagalung 2018. "Luder’s Contingency Model in the Implementation of E-Government and its Impact on Government Performance in South Sulawesi." International Journal of Contemporary Research and Review 9 (12): 21162–21168.

Mok, J. Y. 2020. "Proposed non-linear relation between satisfaction with government performance and co-production: an initial empirical test." Public Management Review 22 (3): 432–451.

Pandeya, G. P. 2015. "Does citizen participation in local government decision-making contribute to strengthening local planning and accountability systems? An empirical assessment of stakeholders' perceptions in Nepal." International Public Management Review 16 (1): 67–98.

Pandeya, G. P.; M. Horie and C. Wescott 2016. "Further dissecting the outcomes of citizen prticipation on local government accountability." International Public Management Review 17 (2): 89–117.

Poniatowicz, M. 2014. "Kontrowersje wokoł idei budżetu partycypacyjnego jako instrumentu finansow lokalnych." Studia ekonomiczne 198 (1): 177–188.

Rosener, J. 1978. "Citizen Participation: Can We Measure its Effectiveness?" Public Administration Review 38 (5): 457–463.

Ruesch, M. A. and M. Wagner. 2014. "Participatory Budgeting in Germany: Citizens as Consultants. Pp. 287–298 N. Dias, ed., Hope for Democracy - 25 Years of Participatory Budgeting Worldwide.

Schneider, S. H. 2018. "Bürgerhaushalte in Deutschland. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.

Schneider, S. H. and S. Busse 2019. "Participatory Budgeting in Germany – A Review of Empirical Findings." International Journal of Public Administration 42 (3): 259–273.

Sicilia, M.; E. Guarini; A. Sancino; M. Andreani and R. Ruffini 2016. "Public services management and co-production in multi-level governance settings." International Review of Administrative Sciences 82 (1): 8–27.

Siebers, V. M.; G. M. van Dijk and R. van Eijbergen 2021. "Unraveling citizen engagement by studying municipail practices." International Public Management Review 21 (1): 80–97.

Sintomer, Y.; C. Herzberg and A. Röcke 2008. "Participatory Budgeting in Europe: Potentials and Challenges." International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 32 (1): 164–178.

Sintomer, Y.; C. Herzberg and A. Röcke 2010. "Der Bürgerhaushalt in Europa - eine realistische Utopie? Wiesbaden: VS Verl. für Sozialwiss.

Souza, C. 2001. "Participatory budgeting in Brazilian cities: limits and possibilities in building democratic institutions." Environment and Urbanization 13 (1): 159–184.

Upping, P. and J. Oliver 2011. "Accounting change model for the public sector: adapting Luder's model for developing countries." International Review of Business Research Papers 7 (1): 364–380.

Wampler, B. 2007. "A Guide to Participatory Budgeting, Participatory budgeting. Pp. 21–54 A. Shah, ed., Participatory Budgeting. Washington, DC: World Bank.

Wiesel, F. and S. Modell 2014. "From New Public Management to New Public Governance? Hybridization and Implications for Public Sector Consumerism." Financial Accountability & Management 30 (2): 175–205.

Zenker, S.; S. Petersen and A. Aholt 2013. "The Citizen Satisfaction Index (CSI): Evidence for a four basic factor model in a German sample." Cities 31 : 156–164.

Downloads

Published

2023-05-04

How to Cite

Schult, H.-H., Haustein, E., Lorson, P. C., Burbulyte-Tsiskarishvili, G., Dvorak, J., Sinervo, L.-M., Kurkela, K., & Trutnev, D. (2023). Citizen-centred design of participatory budgeting: A transnational study in the Baltic Sea Region. International Public Management Review, 22(1), 6–45. Retrieved from https://ipmr.net/index.php/ipmr/article/view/463

Issue

Vol. 22 No. 1 (2022)

Section

Articles

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License that allows others to share the work for non-commercial use with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

2. Authors and IPMR are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository, distribute it via EBSCO, or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.