A new electronic map published by the Participatory Budgeting Project shows that participatory budgeting–a process in which citizens are directly involved in allocating public dollars–is growing.
The map, which allows users to sort the data by year and place, is also helpful in understanding what’s behind the growth in participatory budgeting. As its authors point out:
This data sheds light on larger questions, such as what is the relationship between the size of PB budgets and the number of people who participate? Looking at PBP data on processes in counties, cities, and urban districts, we find a positive correlation between the size of the PB budget per person and the number of people who take part in a PB vote (r=.22, n=245). In other words, where officials make a stronger commitment to funding PB, more people take part in the process–all the more reason to continue growing PB!
We at EnCiv are excited by the trend documented in the new map and hope to contribute to it as our work progresses.
