Social activity in shaping the participatory budget

Abstract

In civil society, self-government as a form of social organisation occupies one of the central positions. The condition for the implementation of the development mission of local government is the participation of citizens and their co-responsibility for the shape of local social life. Recently, the participatory budget has become one of the most popular forms of participation. Its aim is to directly involve residents in the decision-making process regarding the choice of the scope of public tasks within the designated pool of funds and to take over part of the responsibility. The aim of the presented analysis is to show the dynamics of citizen involvement in consultations on spending part of the city budget on local tasks falling within the competence of local government – The civic budget. The adopted research hypothesis assumes that the participatory budget is the most popular form of consultation because in its formula it gives residents a sense of agency and subjectivity in expressing one’s opinions and preferences and also gives tangible results of social engagement visible in the short term. The empirical basis for the analysis are reports on the implementation of the participatory budget of the city of Radom from the beginning of its creation, and literature on the subject. A participatory budget is an excellent tool for education about self-government – it is an element of a specific philosophy of functioning of self-government – as a community of authorities and residents of a given territorial unit, cooperating for its development. The example of the city of Radom indicates that the participatory budget supports, complements, and often replaces or increases the efficiency of public administration. The analyses carried out can be an indication when improving the implementation of the budget of Mazovia.