Connecting participation and e-participation: The use of ICT in the participatory initiatives of Brno

Research on PB in CEE has been rather fragmented and has focused on the diffusion of PB, and sometimes on determinative factors inside the countries. Some comparative studies exist but address primarily initial steps of PB. This paper presents the outcomes of a research that focused on the design of participatory budgeting in the Visegrad countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia). The main method is a secondary comparative analysis of existing literature and information on the subject. The findings are based on recently published country studies and other available information related to the national context in the countries. We use the country studies as input for a multi‐case study analysis (Zongozzi & Wessels, 2016) to make comparisons and, if possible, generalize some of the findings, but also to point out specifics determined by the context in which PB is being implemented and practiced. As the subsidiary method we used expert evaluation. To obtain extra information we consulted experts in all selected countries during July and August 2022. Analyzing PB processes in these countries showed similar features and that, on the whole, PB processes still belong to the group o the Porto Alegre model adapted for Europe as concluded in the literature published almost a decade ago. But this is only valid at a more abstract level of PB designs. Looking at PB processes in practice, it is seen in the V4 region that the actual practices vary over municipalities, even within one and the same country.

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Who Participates in Participatory Budgeting? Unravelling of Who Shows Up

Baláž,

Gašparík

2023

NISPAcee Journal of Public Administration and Policy

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Participatory budgeting (PB) is often described as one of the most successful instruments for participation, engaging people in decision-making, and prioritising where to allocate public money. It has travelled in the form of comprehensive administrative reforms and politically neutral devices to improve governance, especially when arriving to Europe and the Central Eastern European region (CEE). Recently, it was brought to light that PB development in the CEE region was undoubtedly different from the original case; instead of resulting in radical changes to increase activities in favour of marginalised groups, it results only in small changes. This work presents a single case study of the Czech city Brno; information consisting of age, gender, education, economic activity, and preferences of all the PB participants was collated for five years, from its inception in 2017 till 2021. In this case, we observe and analyse the particularities of the participant group, not only in static terms of one year but also drafting a trend on how the participatory base developed throughout the five years. Both desk and field research were employed to gather data. The turnout at PB voting does not copy the general demographic composition of Brno’s residents. Results show that some segments are represented by PB voters with higher proportions, making them more involved in deciding which projects in the city are to be executed using PB. In this way, the description of data-gathering in Brno contributes to the methodology of quantitative data gathering, which might be expanded to other CEE cities in order to elaborate comparisons in the future.

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Connecting participation and e-participation: The use of ICT in the participatory initiatives of Brno

Cited by 3 publications

References 11 publications

Intensity and fragility of Czech participatory budgeting during the Covid 19 crisis

Intensity and fragility of Czech participatory budgeting during the Covid 19 crisis

Municipal Participatory Budgeting Designs in the V4 Countries

Who Participates in Participatory Budgeting? Unravelling of Who Shows Up

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