Participatory budgeting
Topic: Government Budget, Fiscal Policy and FRBM · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
In participatory budgeting, ordinary citizens decide, or help decide, how part of a public budget is spent. It is usually a local budget, such as a city's or a village's. People suggest projects in meetings or online, discuss them and vote on priorities. The government then funds the chosen works. It matters because it makes spending more transparent, builds trust and fits the money to what local people actually need.
Example
Porto Alegre in Brazil started participatory budgeting in 1989. In India, Kerala's People's Plan Campaign (1996) gave gram sabhas (village assemblies) a say in local plans. Pune lets citizens propose ward-level works, such as footpaths or streetlights, for its municipal budget.
Don't confuse with
- Outcome budget: here the government links each ministry's spending to measurable results. Citizens do not choose where the money goes.
Related concepts
- Subsidy
- Cash transfers
- Targeting errors
- JAM trinity
- Universal Basic Income
- Freebies
- Performance budget
- Outcome budget
- Zero-based budgeting
- Gender budgeting