Participatory Budget Formation Through the Web

Abstract. We describe a web-based system to support groups in elaborating participatory budgets. Rather than using physical meetings with voting mechanisms, we promote virtual meetings with explicit preference elicitation, guided negotiations and, only if consensus is not reached, voting. 1 Basic Concepts in Participatory Budget Formation Participatory budgets constitute an attempt to allow citizens to have a word and aid in deciding and approving how public budgets, mainly in municipalities, are spent, whether (and how much) in transportation, culture, education, urban development, health,... They constitute a budget allocation model based on dialogue and citizen participation, which diverges from the current predominant representative model in which citizens choose representatives for four years, with practically no other direct opportunity to influence council policies. In a sense, participatory budgets are transforming the idea of a representative democracy, in which the preferenc...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: TCGOV
• Authors: Jesus Rios, David Ríos Insua, E. Fernandez, J. A. Rivero
• Keywords: Formation Participatory Budgets, Information Management, Participatory Budgets, Public Budgets, TCGOV 2005