Electronic Participation and Participatory Budgeting as Feedback Mechanisms in the Smart City Model

Abstract

Participatory budgeting (PB) is considering in the article as a mechanism of citizens’ participation in budget policy at the local level. Based on the parameters of evaluating the effectiveness of participatory budgeting projects, the paper presents the preliminary results of the comprehensive study of e-participation institutional model, describing the feedback mechanism in the development and functioning of smart urban management systems (including e-governance). In this regard, the analysis of international PB projects’ evaluation methodologies, the study of the subject area, and the literature review on the subject of the study were conducted.As a result of the study, the initial version of the smart city institutional model was refined, containing elements of participatory budgeting and electronic participation as feedback components. A comparative analysis of international methodologies for PB projects’ assessment is carried out; conclusions are formulated; directions for further research are described.The subsequent analysis of PB projects’ evaluation methodologies will focus on the study of practices, based on the aspects of digital transformation and smart city development. Thus, the empirical results of this study can be used for the theoretical development of a new relevant methodology that takes into account the above described components.

Keywords

• e-governance
• e-participation
• smart city
• smart governance
• participatory budgeting
• open budget
• budget decision making
• evaluation methodology
• institutional model
• citizens’ engagement