Revitalizing Democracy: The Transformative Power of Participatory Budgeting in the Public Sphere

Authors

  • Chatcharin Thongmomram Graduate School of Public Administration, National Institute of Development Administration, Thailand
  • Chanit Suntapun Graduate School of Law, National Institute of Development Administration, Thailand
  • Banjerd Singkaneti Graduate School of Law, National Institute of Development Administration, Thailand

Keywords:

deliberative democracy, public sphere

Abstract

This article investigates the connections between deliberative democracy, the public sphere, and participatory budgeting, with a particular emphasis on participatory budgeting as a critical aspect in democratic transformation. It investigates the theoretical underpinnings of participatory budgeting in the framework of deliberative democracy and public sphere theory, which involve citizens in collective decision-making. It also dives into participatory budgeting technologies and methods, emphasizing the possibilities for increased citizen engagement, social equality, and improved public openness and accountability. To fully assess the impact of participatory budgeting, the article discusses its triumphs and problems, such as establishing inclusion, adjusting to technology developments, and standardizing participatory budgeting. It also examines future approaches, stressing international commonsense, incorporating new technology, and expanding the practice to other situations. Participatory budgeting may be considered as not simply a tool for distributing public resources, but also for restoring democracy and promoting social transformation. Participatory budgeting helps to create more responsive and just governance by empowering citizens and cultivating a culture of involvement.

References

Abers, R. (2000). Inventing local democracy: grassroots politics in Brazil. Lynne Rienner Publishers.

Agger, A., & Sørensen, E. (2018). Managing collaborative innovation in public bureaucracies. Planning Theory, 17(1), 53-73.

Avritzer, L. (2006). New public spheres in Brazil: local democracy and deliberative politics. International Journal of Urban and regional research, 30(3), 623-637.

Avritzer, L. (2009). Democracy and the public space in Latin America. Princeton University Press.

Bächtiger, A., Dryzek, J. S., Mansbridge, J., & Warren, M. (2018). Deliberative democracy. The Oxford handbook of deliberative democracy, 1-32.

Baiocchi, G. (2005). Militants and citizens: The politics of participatory democracy in Porto Alegre. Stanford University Press.

Bartocci, L., Grossi, G., & Mauro, S. G. (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., & King, C. S. (2002). The challenge to improve citizen participation in public budgeting: A discussion. Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management, 14(3), 463-485.

Bedock, C., & Pilet, J. B. (2021). Who supports citizens selected by lot to be the main policymakers? A study of French citizens. Government and Opposition, 56(3), 485-504.

Bedock, C., & Pilet, J. B. (2023). Enraged, engaged, or both? A study of the determinants of support for consultative vs. binding mini-publics. Representation, 59(1), 33-53.

Bekkers, V., Edelenbos, J., & Steijn, B. (2011). An innovative public sector? Embarking on the innovation journey. Innovation in the Public Sector, 197-221.

Benhabib, S. (Ed.). (2021). Democracy and difference: Contesting the boundaries of the political. Princeton University Press.

Bilge, S. (2015). A New Approach in Public Budgeting: Citizens' Budget. Journal of International Education and Leadership, 5(1), n1.

Brezovar, N., & Stanimirović, T. (2022). Sustainability aspects of participatory budgeting at the municipal level in Slovenia. Public sector economics, 46(4), 569-589.

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

Cabannes, Y. (2004). Participatory budgeting: Conceptual framework and analysis of its contribution to urban governance and the Millennium Development Goals. United Nations Human Settlements Programme. Retrieved from https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10660/

Cabannes, Y., & Lipietz, B. (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.

Cohen, J. (1997). Procedure and substance in deliberative democracy. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Cohen, J. Procedure and Substance in Deliberative Democracy (1996) in Seyla Benhabib (ed) Democracy and Difference–Contesting the Boundaries of the Political.

Cohen, J., & Rogers, J. (1993). Associations and democracy. Social Philosophy and Policy, 10(2), 282-312.

Dahl, R. A. (2008). Democracy and its Critics. Yale university press.

Dias, N. (Ed.). (2018). Hope for democracy: 30 years of participatory budgeting worldwide.. In L. Nelson Dias (Ed.), Epopeia Records.

Ebdon, C., & Franklin, A. L. (2006). Citizen participation in budgeting theory. Public administration review, 66(3), 437-447.

Eggers, W. D., & Singh, S. K. (2009). The Public Innovator's Playbook: Nurturing bold ideas in government. Deloitte/Harvard Kennedy School's Ash Institute.

Elster, J. (Ed.). (1998). Deliberative democracy (Vol. 1). Cambridge University Press.

Ewens, H., & van der Voet, J. (2019). Organizational complexity and participatory innovation: participatory budgeting in local government. Public Management Review, 21(12), 1848-1866.

Fishkin, J. S. (2002). Deliberative democracy. The Blackwell guide to social and political philosophy, 221-238.

Font, J., Wojcieszak, M., & Navarro, C. J. (2015). Participation, representation and expertise: Citizen preferences for political decision-making processes. Political Studies, 63(1_suppl), 153-172.

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Herder and Herder.

Fung, A. (2004). Empowered participation: Reinventing urban democracy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Fung, A., & Wright, E. O. (2001). Deepening democracy: Innovations in empowered participatory governance. Politics & society, 29(1), 5-41.

Gherghina, S., & Geissel, B. (2017). Linking democratic preferences and political participation: Evidence from Germany. Political Studies, 65(1_suppl), 24-42.

Gherghina, S., & Geissel, B. (2020). Support for direct and deliberative models of democracy in the UK: understanding the difference. Political Research Exchange, 2(1), 1809474.

Goldfrank, B. (2011). Deepening local democracy in Latin America: Participation, decentralization, and the left. University Park, PA: Penn State University Press.

Goldsmith, W., & Vainer, C. (2001). Participatory budgeting and power politics in Porto Alegre. Eure-Revista Latinoamericana De Estudios Urbano Regionales, 27(82), 115-119.

Gret, M., & Sintomer, Y. (2005). The Porto Alegre experiment: learning lessons for better democracy. Zed Books.

Gutmann, A., & Thompson, D. F. (2004). Why deliberative democracy?. Princeton University Press.

Habermas, J. (1974). The public sphere: an encyclopedia article (1964). New German Critique, 3, 49-55.

Habermas, J. (1991). The structural transformation of the public sphere: An inquiry into a category of bourgeois society. MIT Press.

Habermas, J. (2023). A new structural transformation of the public sphere and deliberative politics. John Wiley & Sons.

Hirst, P. (1998) Democracy and civil society. In P. Hirst and S. Khilnani (eds.), Reinventing Democracy, Blackwell, Cambridge, MA.

Hong, S. (2015). Citizen participation in budgeting: A trade‐off between knowledge and inclusiveness?. Public Administration Review, 75(4), 572-582.

Kim, S., & Schachter, H. L. (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.

Lerner, J. (2014). Making democracy fun: How game design can empower citizens and transform politics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Lerner, J., & Secondo, D. (2012). By the people, for the people: Participatory budgeting from the bottom up in North America. Journal of Deliberative Democracy, 8(2). Retrieved from https://delibdemjournal.org/article/id/420/

Magliacani, M. (2020). The Public Value Sphere Within the Participatory Budgeting: Evidences From an Italian Smart City. Journal of US-China Public Administration, 17(3), 87-98.

Manes-Rossi, F., Brusca, I., Orelli, R. L., Lorson, P. C., & Haustein, E. (2023). Features and drivers of citizen participation: Insights from participatory budgeting in three European cities. Public Management Review, 25(2), 201-223.

Mansbridge, J. (1990). Democracy and common interests. Social alternatives, 8(4), 20-25.

Melo, M. A., & Baiocchi, G. (2006). Deliberative democracy and local governance: towards a new agenda. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 30(3), 587-600.

Nacar, B., & Falay, N. (2024). Participatory Budgeting in Public Sphere, Governance, Transparency and Participation. Politik Ekonomik Kuram, 8(1), 149-159.

Newton, K. (2012). Introduction: 2 3Curing the democratic malaise with democratic innovations. In Evaluating democratic innovations (pp. 1-20). Routledge.

Newton, K. & Geissel, B. (2012), “Evaluating democratic innovations: curing the democratic malaise?”, in Evaluating Democratic Innovations: Curing the Democratic Malaise, Routledge, p. ix, doi: 10.4324/9780203155196.

Novy, A., & Leubolt, B. (2005). Participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre: social innovation and the dialectical relationship of state and civil society. Urban studies, 42(11), 2023-2036.

Sampaio, R. C., Maia, R. C. M., & Marques, F. P. J. A. (2011). Participation and deliberation on the Internet: A case study of digital participatory budgeting in Belo Horizonte. The Journal of Community Informatics, 7(1-2). Retrieved from journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/654/704

Schumpeter, J. A., & Swedberg, R. (2021). The theory of economic development. Routledge.

Sen, A. (1999). Development as freedom. New York: Oxford University Press.

Shah, A. (Ed.). (2007). Participatory budgeting. World Bank Publications.

Sintomer, Y., Herzberg, C., & Röcke, A. (2008). Participatory budgeting in Europe: Potentials and challenges. International journal of urban and regional research, 32(1), 164-178.Vigoda, E. (2002). From responsiveness to collaboration: Governance, citizens, and the next generation of public administration. Public administration review, 62(5), 527-540.

Sørensen, E., & Torfing, J. (2016). Collaborative innovation in the public sector. Enhancing public innovation by transforming public governance, 115-116.

Suntapun, C., Singseetha, T., Singkaneti, B., & Thongmomram, C. (2024). Empowering Citizens to Enhance Quality of Life: The “Public Sphere” Initiative in Suphan Buri Province. Local Administration Journal, 17(2), 245-260. (In Thai)

Talukder, D., & Pilet, J. B. (2021). Public support for deliberative democracy. A specific look at the attitudes of citizens from disadvantaged groups. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, 34(5), 656–676. doi.org/10.1080/13511610.2021.1978284

Torfing, J., & Triantafillou, P. (Eds.). (2016). Enhancing public innovation by transforming public governance. Cambridge University Press.

van der Does, R. (2023). Citizen involvement in public policy: Does it matter how much is at stake?. Public Administration, 101(3), 772-787.

Vigoda, E. (2002). From responsiveness to collaboration: Governance, citizens, and the next generation of public administration. Public administration review, 62(5), 527-540.

Wampler, B. (2000). A guide to participatory budgeting (pp. 1-30). International Budget Partnership.

Wampler, B. (2010). Participatory budgeting in Brazil: Contestation, cooperation, and accountability. Penn State Press.

Wampler, B., & Avritzer, L. (2004). Participatory publics: Civil society and new institutions in democratic Brazil. Comparative Politics, 36(3), 291-312.

Webb, P. (2013). Who is willing to participate? Dissatisfied democrats, stealth democrats and populists in the United Kingdom. European Journal of Political Research, 52(6), 747-772.

Downloads

Published

2025-03-31

How to Cite

Thongmomram, C., Suntapun, C. ., & Singkaneti, B. (2025). Revitalizing Democracy: The Transformative Power of Participatory Budgeting in the Public Sphere. Local Administration Journal, 18(1), 149–178. retrieved from https://so04.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/colakkujournals/article/view/274359