Participatory Budgeting in the United States: A Preliminary Analysis of Chicago's 49th Ward Experiment

New Political Science 36 (2):193-218 (2014)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

This paper presents a preliminary analysis of the first participatory budgeting experiment in the United States, in Chicago's 49th Ward. There are two avenues of inquiry: First, does participatory budgeting result in different budgetary priorities than standard practices? Second, do projects meet normative social justice outcomes? It is clear that allowing citizens to determine municipal budget projects results in very different outcomes than standard procedures. Importantly, citizens in the 49th Ward consistently choose projects that the research literature classifies as low priority. The results are mixed, however, when it comes to social justice outcomes. While there is no clear pattern in which projects are located only in affluent sections of the ward, there is evidence of geographic clustering. Select areas are awarded projects like community gardens, dog parks, and playgrounds, while others are limited to street resurfacing, sidewalk repairs, bike racks, and bike lanes. Based on our findings, we offer suggestions for future programmatic changes.

Links

PhilArchive

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Participatory Democracy and Criminal Justice.Albert W. Dzur - 2012 - Criminal Law and Philosophy 6 (2):115-129.
Dewey's dream: universities and democracies in an age of education reform: civil society, public schools, and democratic citizenship.Lee Benson - 2007 - Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Edited by Ira Richard Harkavy & John L. Puckett.
Reflections on participatory design.Karamjit S. Gill - 1989 - AI and Society 3 (4):297-314.

Analytics

Added to PP
2014-06-25

Downloads
2,025 (#3,981)

6 months
113 (#28,685)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Steve Miller
University of Maine

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references