Urban democracy in post-Maidan Ukraine: conflict and cooperation between citizens and local governments in participatory budgeting

Abstract

ABSTRACT Seeking to explain Ukraine's societal resilience in the context of the Russian invasion, scholars point to the unprecedented levels of civic engagement on the one hand and improvements in local self-governance on the other. However, little is known about how citizens have interacted with local authorities in recent years. This article studies modes of interaction between citizens and public servants in the co-production of participatory budgeting projects in Dnipro, Kyiv, and Lviv. I adopt a relational approach to democracy, focusing on the participants’ assessments of their cooperation with municipal authorities. The article draws on 51 semi-structured interviews and is informed by a digital ethnography. The results reveal that the participants’ oversight is crucial because public servants regularly attempt to block those proposals which do not have precedents. The degree of the participants’ influence varied in the three cases, yet in each case the participants’ greater understanding of local self-governance processes was essential for facilitating adequate responses by local authorities. These findings not only result in a better understanding of the development of urban democracy in Ukraine prior to 2022, but also highlight the significant role participatory processes can play in the prospective democratic governance in Ukraine.