Following in the footsteps of Porto Alegre – Participatory Budgeting as a Deliberative Form of Decision-making. Researchfindings

Abstract

Participatory budgeting is a deliberative form of decision-making that allows residents to have a direct impact on how their local government units spend the funds. This form of citizen participation has been widely adopted in large cities. It is also implemented in smaller communes, but the scale of its implementation is incomparably smaller. Small and medium-sized communes located in five provinces were used as the subject of the study. The purpose of the study was to determine the scale of implementation of participatory budgets in urban, urban-rural and rural communes and the amount of funds allocated for this purpose in 2019‑2021. The study also attempts to identify the reasons for abandoning the implementation of participatory budgets in selected units during the research period. Based on the analysis, conclusions were formulated. The study can fill a gap in the literature on the subject, given that most of the scientific research concerns only urban centers. The presented results should be regarded as an introduction to the necessary in-depth analysis of the subject of the study.