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

该项目解决了有关决策实践与民主之间联系的几个关键问题：参与式预算（政府留出一部分公共预算供社区分配的过程）如何影响实施该预算的社区的政治行为模式和公民参与？投资于让公众参与预算的新机会是否值得？这个项目检验了参与式预算等小规模治理改革对民主影响的断言。它提出了一种新的参与性预算编制的中层制度理论，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。本研究采用定性和定量方法对美国和英国城市参与式预算的四个案例进行了比较评估，提供了一套独特的实证检验，以证明让人们有机会直接控制地方预算决策对民主的影响。知识价值：这个项目调查了狭义的参与式治理机构（如参与式预算）对民主影响的基本主张。它整合了不同但相关的文献，解释了公民参与、政治制度和民主质量，并对基于价值的民主理论提出的主张进行了实证检验。在发展参与式预算如何改变社区中人们的政治行为和偏好的制度理论的过程中，该项目对政治科学中关于制度与通常被称为政治文化之间关系的持续辩论做出了实质性贡献，政治文化是指在社区中建立默认政治实践取向的信仰和行为的一般模式。作为一项新的实证贡献，它还提供了参与式预算的第一个比较评估之一，以便在发达民主国家进行系统的跨国比较。该项目迈出了迫切需要的一步，使人们普遍了解参与式预算作为一套共同机构的区别，以及这些机构如何在一个政治共同体内运作。更广泛的影响：这项研究有几个更广泛的影响。首先，它对决策者、政府官员和社区领袖有直接的利益和应用。实地工作的后续工作还包括向参与性预算编制过程的参与者和地方组织者分发研究结果的特别有针对性的报告，使他们能够反思并纳入对其过程的观察。其次，该项目通过给本科生提供广泛的研究经验的机会来支持本科生的教育。第三，在实地调研过程中，合作项目能够为流程组织者提供技术援助，提高其内部研究和评估能力。最后，这项研究直接有助于国家的经济福祉。在有效和有针对性地实施参与式预算编制的支持下，提高预算编制过程的效率和反应能力，将使城市更具经济竞争力，为商业发展创造更好的环境，从而对美国城市地区的经济健康产生直接影响。

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.