Participatory Budgeting in Local Government: A Case study of Sweden

• Participatory budgeting (PB) represents only one of many forms of public involvement deserving a special attention since it became fashionable across the world, promising improvement of local participative democracy, guarantying citizens’ engagement and involvement in local matters everywhere. The inspiration came from Porto Alegre in Brasilia. The aim is to describe and map: what is known about participatory budgeting in Sweden, during the period 2005 – 2020. The focus is on the Swedish model of PB, the rules for citizen participation in the frame of PB, the principles steering organization and administration of PB and the outcomes. This research in based on the reports, public documents from the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR) and public documents from the homepages of those municipalities that introduced PB in their agenda. Additional source of information proved to be SOU-reports and the previous empirical studies conducted on this topic. From this study appears that the PB in Sweden has hardly waked up interest among the Swedish municipalities although many efforts from SALAR to promote and support this new democratic institution. The positive opinions about PB did not convince the elected local representatives to continue such citizen participation in local decision-making. PB at local level in Sweden seems to be in a constant experimentation. The Swedish municipalities are still “reigned” by the principles of deliberative democracy in local decision-making. However, it goes against the government's decision and recommendations from the EU.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Statsvetenskap -- Studier av offentlig förvaltning (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Political Science -- Public Administration Studies (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Participatory budgeting

local participative democracy

local decision-making

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)