The Modes of Participation: A Revised Frame for Identifying and Analyzing Participatory Budgeting Practices

Abstract

Participatory budgeting is a democratic process through which citizens make decisions about budgeting. It has received attention in public administration literature. Many scholars apply “participatory budgeting” too broadly. They conflate nominally participatory practices with those that emanated from the Global South and now expand throughout the United States. This article explores various applications of “participatory budgeting.” It also presents a heuristic framework, developed out of the work of Arnstein and Fung, which assists practitioners and researchers in identification and evaluation of participatory processes, including participatory budgeting. This framework is applied to four cases to illustrate determination of participatory budgeting practices.