Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: An Institutional Theory of Participatory Budgeting

该项目解决了有关决策做法和民主之间联系的几个关键问题：参与性预算编制，即政府拨出公共预算的一部分供社区分配的过程，如何影响实施参与性预算的社区的政治行为模式和公民参与？投资于公众参与预算的新机会值得吗？这个项目测试了有关参与式预算等小规模治理改革的民主影响的断言。它提出了参与性预算编制的新的中级机构理论，描述了围绕预算编制的一套新规则如何能够在政治社区内实现新的沟通和动员模式。这项研究使用定性和定量方法，对美国和英国城市的四个参与式预算编制案例进行了比较评估，对人们有机会直接控制地方预算决策的民主影响的因果主张提供了一套独特的实证检验。智力价值：这个项目调查了关于参与式预算等狭义参与式治理机构民主影响的基本主张。它整合了解释公民参与、政治机构和民主质量的不同但相关的文献，经验性地检验了基于价值的民主理论提出的断言。在开发参与性预算如何改变社区中人们的政治行为和偏好的制度理论方面，该项目为政治学中关于制度与通常所指的政治文化之间的关系的持续辩论做出了实质性贡献，政治文化是指建立对社区政治实践的默认取向的信仰和行为的一般模式。作为一项新的经验性贡献，它还提供了参与性预算编制的首批比较评价之一，以便在发达民主国家进行系统的跨国比较。该项目朝着全面理解参与性预算作为一套公共机构的区别以及这些机构如何在政治社区内运作迈出了亟需的一步。更广泛的影响：这项研究有几个更广泛的影响。首先，它直接关系到政策制定者、政府官员和社区领袖的利益和应用。实地工作的后续行动还包括向参与性预算编制过程的参与者和当地组织者分发研究中特别有针对性的报告，以便他们能够反思和纳入对其过程的观察。其次，该项目支持本科生的教育，让他们有机会获得广泛的研究经验。第三，在实地研究期间，联合方案能够向进程组织者提供技术援助，以提高其内部研究和评估能力。最后，这项研究直接为国家的经济福祉做出了贡献。在有效和有针对性地实施参与式预算的支持下，更高效和更具响应性的预算编制程序将通过提高城市的经济竞争力和为商业发展建立更好的环境，直接影响美国城市地区的经济健康。

The project addresses several critical questions about the connection between decision-making practices and democracy: How does participatory budgeting, a process in which a government sets aside part of a public budget for the community to allocate, impact patterns of political behavior and civic engagement in the communities where it is implemented? Are investments in new opportunities for public involvement in budgeting worthwhile? This project tests assertions about the democratic impact of small-scale governance reforms like participatory budgeting. It advances a new mid-level institutional theory of participatory budgeting that describes how a new set of rules around budgeting may enable new patterns of communication and mobilization within a political community. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods in a comparative evaluation of four cases of participatory budgeting in cities in the US and UK, this research provides a unique set of empirical tests of causal claims about the democratic effects of giving people the chance to directly control local budget decisions.Intellectual Merit: This project investigates fundamental claims about the democratic impact of narrowly defined participatory governance institutions like participatory budgeting. It integrates disparate but related literatures explaining civic engagement, political institutions, and democratic quality, empirically testing assertions advanced by value-based theories of democracy. In developing an institutional theory of how participatory budgeting may transform the political behavior and preferences of people in a community, this project makes a substantive contribution to ongoing debates within political science about the relationship between institutions and what is generally referred to as political culture, the general pattern of beliefs and behaviors that establish default orientations toward political practices in a community. As a new empirical contribution, it also provides one of the first comparative evaluations of participatory budgeting to draw systematic cross-country comparisons in developed democracies. The project takes a much-needed step toward a general understanding of what distinguishes participatory budgeting as a common set of institutions and how these institutions operate within a political community. Broader Impact: This research has several broader impacts. First, it is of direct interest and application to policy makers, government officials, and community leaders. Follow-up to fieldwork has also included distributing specially targeted reports from the research back to participants and local organizers of participatory budgeting processes so they can reflect on and incorporate the observations of their process. Second, this project supports the education of undergraduate students by giving them the chance for extensive research experience. Third, during field research, the Co-PI has been able to provide technical assistance to process organizers to improve their own internal research and evaluation capacity. Finally, this research directly contributes to the economic well-being of the country. More efficient and responsive budgeting processes, as supported by effective and targeted implementation of participatory budgeting will have a direct impact on the economic health of urban areas in the US, by making cities more economically competitive and establishing a better environment for business development.