Participatory Budgeting: Unpacking the Values, Principles and Standards
From the current Wikipedia: "Participatory budgeting is a process of democratic deliberation and decision-making, in which ordinary residents decide how to allocate part of a municipal or public budget."
From a new publication by the Participatory Budgeting Unit, in Manchester, UK:
The purpose of this document is to provide PB projects with a way of identifying which values, principles and standards they have adopted in their process, and to what extent. ... The values, principles and standards demonstrate good practice. ...
• Transparency: PB processes are designed to give citizens full and clear knowledge of public budgets in their area, even those over which they do not have a direct say. ...
• Accessibility: Participants have good and clear access to PB processes. ...
• Deliberation: PB processes should take citizens beyond personal choice and involve real deliberation around budget decisions. ...
• Empowerment: PB events are centrally concerned with empowering local citizens in decisions over local services and shaping their local area through allocating part of a public budget. ...
• Local Ownership: Residents should be involved in setting budget priorities and identifying projects for public spend in their area wherever possible.
• Mainstream Involvement: Over time processes should move towards residents being involved in decisions over mainstream budgets. ...
• Support Representative Democracy: Participation mechanisms such as PB should be seen as supporting representative democracy rather than undermining it. PB can increase citizens trust of councillors and boost the role of ward councillors. ...
• Shared Responsibility: PB should build common purpose and commitment from all stakeholders.
