Participatory Budgeting in Europe ─ Democracy and Public Governance

Can participatory budgeting help make public services really work for the public? Incorporating a range of experiments in ten different countries, this book provides the first comprehensive analysis of participatory budgeting in Europe and the effect it has had on democracy, the modernization of local government, social justice, gender mainstreaming and sustainable development. By focussing on the first decade of European participatory budgeting and analysing the results and the challenges affecting the agenda today it provides a critical appraisal of the participatory model. Detailed comparisons of European cases expose similarities and differences between political cultures and offer a strong empirical basis to discuss the theories of deliberative and participatory democracy and reveal contradictory tendencies between political systems, public administrations and democratic practices.

Yves Sintomer is professor for political science at Paris 8 University, and Senior Fellow at the Institut Universitaire de France. He is visiting professor and associated researcher at Neuchatel University, Lausanne University and Bask Country University. He is doctor of political and social sciences (European University Institute, Florence) and works in a research supervision capacity (Paris 5 University).

Anja Rocke is Assistant Professor at the Institute for Social Sciences at Humboldt University, Berlin. She studied in Berlin and Paris and achieved her doctoral degree at the European University Institute in Florence.

Carsten Herzberg is Senior Researcher at the Nexus Institute – a think tank for participatory politics and cooperation management in Berlin. He studied Political Science and holds a German-French PhD.