Technology support for participatory budgeting

Abstract

Participatory budgeting is information and communication rich – making it well suited for modern technology support. Widespread participation is difficult to achieve without this support. This paper identifies basic processes which are common to most participatory budgeting initiatives and couples them together in a generic process model. We illustrate it with the well known Porto Alegre case. The more recent Berlin-Lichtenberg initiative is examined to understand how internet-based technologies are used to support the various participatory budgeting processes. Moreover, we identify a range of technologies currently used to support different e-participation activities and match them to the generic participatory budgeting processes.