Citizen Participation in Local Budgeting: Mechanisms, Political Support, and City Manager’s Moderating Role

Factors Explaining Public Participation in the Central Government Budget Process

“…Most of the empirical literature on the determinants of public participation in the budget process has been conducted at the subnational level (see, e.g. Ebdon ; Zhang and Liao ; Zhang and Liao ; Liao and Zhang ), given the limited availability of a cross‐country dataset on public participation (Ebdon and Franklin ; Khagram et al. ).…”

“…According to Protasel (), larger cities are more heterogeneous, which may result in increased political conflict due to varying group demands. Therefore, governments of larger and more diverse communities are more likely to formalize citizen participation in budgeting decisions since they have to allocate greater resources than smaller communities and face more competing demands in formulating the budget (Ebdon ; Ebdon and Franklin ; Liao and Zhang ). Some empirical studies show a positive impact of population size on citizen engagement in local governments’ budget process (Ebdon ; Zhang and Yang ), whereas others find the opposite (Liao and Zhang ).…”

“…Therefore, governments of larger and more diverse communities are more likely to formalize citizen participation in budgeting decisions since they have to allocate greater resources than smaller communities and face more competing demands in formulating the budget (Ebdon ; Ebdon and Franklin ; Liao and Zhang ). Some empirical studies show a positive impact of population size on citizen engagement in local governments’ budget process (Ebdon ; Zhang and Yang ), whereas others find the opposite (Liao and Zhang ). Moreover, while some studies find that communities’ diversity (measured as migrant rate) has a positive effect on public participation in local governments’ budget process (Liao and Zhang ), others fail to prove a positive relationship between them (Ebdon ).…”

“…Some empirical studies show a positive impact of population size on citizen engagement in local governments’ budget process (Ebdon ; Zhang and Yang ), whereas others find the opposite (Liao and Zhang ). Moreover, while some studies find that communities’ diversity (measured as migrant rate) has a positive effect on public participation in local governments’ budget process (Liao and Zhang ), others fail to prove a positive relationship between them (Ebdon ).…”

“…Finally, the financial situation of the country may also have an impact on public participation in the budget process. In this sense, Liao and Zhang () state that communities with greater resources are more likely to adopt administrative reforms, such as enhancing citizen participation in budgeting. However, Liao and Zhang () do not find a significant relationship between resource availability and the level of citizen participation in the local budget process.…”