Citizen Engagement in Local Budgeting: Does Diversity Pay Dividends?

Abstract

The literature on citizen engagement in budgeting suggests local governments can improve how they collect, interpret, and incorporate citizen input about resource allocation issues. However, at the moment, it is unclear whether that input, particularly from a more diverse citizenry, is more or less useful to managers. We address this question by examining how a variety of demographic and institutional factors affect manager perceptions of citizen engagement among a sample of 221 local governments in Michigan and Minnesota. The results suggest that the input managers perceive as useful tends to focus on community concerns rather than parochial concerns. We also find that community diversity associates with a clear trade-off, as managers in more diverse communities are more likely to perceive citizen input as focused on community-wide rather than parochial interests but less likely to view that input as useful in making budget decisions.