scholarly journals Citizen Participation in the Budget Process and Local Government Accountability

2013 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 456-471 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soojin Kim ◽  
Hindy Lauer Schachter
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Budget Process ◽  
Government Accountability

scholarly journals Participatory budgeting in a local government in a vertical society: A Japanese story

2017 ◽  
Vol 85 (3) ◽  
pp. 490-505 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shahzad Uddin ◽  
Yuji Mori ◽  
Pawan Adhikari
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
Budget Process ◽  
Participatory Budgeting ◽  
Cultural Perspective ◽  
Key Stakeholders ◽  
Government Reforms ◽  
Degree Of Participation

This article examines a case of participatory budgeting in Japanese local government. The article demonstrates how cultural values interact with stages of budgeting (in our case, the co-planning or consultation phase of budgeting). We find three key stakeholders – councillors, administrators and citizens – have varying degree of participation in the budget process. While direct citizen participation has been limited and challenging, we find that local associations and councillors work as lobbyists to influence the budget less publicly. The budget desk led by the mayor plays the dominant role. This article contributes to the broader debate on local government reforms and their translation into varied contexts by problematising such a linear adoption of knowledge from a cultural perspective. Points for practitioners We offer caution to policymakers about the wholesale adoption of knowledge from one context to the other. In the Japanese context, we urge them to draw on the strengths of grouping behaviour. Hence, engagement with associations, communities and various interests groups must be emphasised instead of simply relying on direct yet remote communications to citizens. Political engagements by the departments – perhaps via political parties – can be adopted before budget proposals are made to the local authority council. This will allow more space for the councillors to make their case to citizens, and maintain harmony ( wa) within and between political groups.

scholarly journals Pathways to Citizen Participation: Participatory Budgeting Policy Choice by Local Governments

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 46
Author(s):  
Skip Krueger ◽  
HyungGun Park
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Budget Process ◽  
Participatory Budgeting ◽  
Institutional Perspective ◽  
Administrative Capacity ◽  
Specific Policy

The existing literature on participatory budgeting – as one means of citizen participation in local governance – tends to focus on how to stimulate citizen participation in the budget process, and primarily aims to descriptively explain the magnitude of participation or the adoption of specific policy approaches. We investigate participatory budgeting from an institutional perspective and empirically evaluate the choices that local governments make in adopting a specific set of rules for including citizens in the budget process. We suggest that the choice of the type of participatory budgeting policy is predicated on the partisanship of policymakers, the administrative capacity of local government, and citizen’s experience with other forms of direct democracy. To test these hypotheses, we collect information on 224 local governments in South Korea from 2004 to 2013. For each city, we identify the type of participatory budgeting policy they adopt and evaluate that choice in an empirical model. The results provide evidence that the partisanship of local policymakers and the administrative capacity of the local government are associated with different choices about the inclusion of citizens in the budget process.

INITIATIVE BUDGETING AS AN INSTRUMENT OF TERRITORIAL SELF-GOVERNMENT

2019 ◽  
Vol 86 (3) ◽  
pp. 77-90
Author(s):  
V. V. Vagin ◽  
N. A. Shapovalova
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Institutional Analysis ◽  
Institutional Development ◽  
Development Programs ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
State And Local Government ◽  
State And Local ◽  
Government Initiative ◽  
Local Levels

The article is devoted to the actual issue – institutional analysis of initiative budgeting and territorial public selfgovernment, as well as the possibility of their integration. Over the past few years, a system of civil participation in budget decisions has been built in Russia, the regulatory framework of practices has been created, thousands of employees of state and local government bodies have been trained, project centers have appeared for ensuring development of initiative budgeting. Citizen participation in budget decisions can significantly accelerate the development of the lower level of local government. Initiative budgeting is an innovative instrument of public finance and at the same time a social technology allowing for the real involvement of citizens in the issues of state and municipal governance. Initiative budgeting development programs make it possible to transfer financing of projects aimed at solving local issues with the participation of citizens onto a systemic basis. The results and materials of this study can serve a foundation for theoretical understanding of the institutional development of public finances at the regional and local levels. At the same time, this practical area that was intensively developing in recent years requires deep institutional analysis.

Exploring the Uncharted Territory of Devolution in Zimbabwe

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jephias Mapuva ◽  
George P Miti
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Participatory Governance ◽  
Enabling Environment ◽  
Efficiency And Effectiveness ◽  
Local Levels

Devolution, which was incorporated into the Constitution of Zimbabwe through section 264, is a new phenomenon in Zimbabwe. This incorporation came about because of the need for participatory governance and the devolution of power away from the centre. Over the years, local governance has been informed by a plethora of pieces of legislation that do not provide an enabling environment for citizen participation, giving Zimbabwe’s local government a chequered history that excludes citizens from participating in public affairs that affect their lives. An analysis of section 264 of the Constitution revealed that devolution has the propensity to enhance transparency, efficiency and effectiveness as well as the fulfilment of central government’s responsibilities at provincial and local levels. This article argues that the belated implementation of the devolution of power has delayed improved service delivery, effectiveness, efficiency and accountability within local governance. This article further seeks to explain how the implementation of section 264 of the Constitution can bring about good local governance.

Social mobilization and tackling the performance of local government in rural Nepal

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ganesh Prasad Pandeya ◽  
Tatsuo Oyama ◽  
Chakrapani Acharya
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Social Mobilization ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Local Power ◽  
Local Planning ◽  
Rural Villages ◽  
Disadvantaged Groups ◽  
Participatory Institutions ◽  
Rural Nepal

Abstract Based on extensive fieldwork in two rural villages, this paper qualitatively examines how social mobilization initiatives influence local government (LG) performance in Nepal. LG mobilized community people to empower them for their effective participation in local planning and decision-making processes. Comparing with the prior period of mobilization, evidence demonstrates that mobilization promises to boost LG performance through empowering communities to enhance their agency and entitlements, promoting democratic and effective citizen participation, and strengthening LG responsiveness and social accountability. But these connections are not straightforward, as there appeared discrepancies in parallel in recognizing equal participation rights of disadvantaged groups and equitable distribution of public resources among social groups. The findings imply that mobilization can be an effective strategy for tackling many challenges of participatory institutions, as it tends to create social pressures for making participatory institutions more democratic and changing the local power dynamics in favour of disadvantaged groups.

scholarly journals Council Press Offices as Sources of Political Information: Between Journalism for Accountability and Propaganda

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 34
Author(s):  
Vanessa Rodríguez-Breijo ◽  
Núria Simelio ◽  
Pedro Molina-Rodríguez-Navas
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Public Information ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Political Information ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
The Public ◽  
Selection Of

This study uses a qualitative approach to examine what political and technical leaders of municipalities understand transparency and public information to mean, and what role they believe the different subjects involved (government, opposition, and the public) should have. The websites of 605 Spanish councils with more than 100,000 inhabitants were analysed and three focus groups were held with political and technical leaders from a selection of sample councils. The results show that the technical and political leaders of the councils do not have a clear awareness of their function of management accountability or of the need to apply journalistic criteria to the information they publish, defending with nuances the use of propaganda criteria to focus on the actions of the local government, its information, the lack of space dedicated to public debate and the opposition’s actions. In relation to accountability and citizen participation, they have a negative view of citizens, who they describe as being disengaged. However, they emphasize that internally it is essential to continue improving in terms of the culture of transparency and the public information they provide citizens.

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