The Quantum Budget vs. Participatory Budgeting

Abstract

This paper compares two advanced approaches for involving citizens in matters of public funding – Participatory Budgeting (PB) and the Quantum Budget (QB). Participatory Budgeting is being practised as a way to allow citizens to have a say in which communal projects will get funded by governments. It is being practised in many cities and communities around the world since the 1980ies, and has recently gained new popularity. The Quantum Budget, on the other hand, is a new idea to fund community projects that does not require intermediaries such as governments to allocate money or realise projects. To achieve this, the Quantum Budget relies on Liquid Democracy, which is, beside direct democracy, representative democracy, and participatory democracy, a fourth democratic way for a community to make common decisions. The Quantum Budget can thus serve as a pillar to enable a new generation of democracy that relies on informatization, thus enabling new approaches to governing Smart Cities. This paper explains the Quantum Budget and outlines its potentials and differences when compared to Participatory Budgeting.