Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: Participatory Budgeting and the Quest for Empowered Participatory Governance

Abstract Participatory Budgeting (PB) is a welcome democratic innovation because it promises to empower traditionally marginalized groups and create more equitable public spending. PB delegates public authority to neighborhood residents to propose and decide on projects to fund with tax dollars. Does PB achieve a form of empowered participatory governance? This article examines this question by focusing on the degree to which PB engages marginalized groups in two Bay Area cities, using survey and interview data. We find that marginalized groups do participate, periodically at rates equal to their proportion of the population, and such groups appear to occasionally benefit materially from winning projects, though to a lesser extent. Effective outreach methods that contribute to these outcomes are highlighted. However, overall findings show that white middle-aged, middle-class groups participate most. Moreover, PB funds have been scaled back in both cities, limiting benefits and their potential to achieve PB’s equity goals. These results mirror outcomes in other jurisdictions. We conclude, nevertheless, with discussion of how PB’s institutional design, which if expanded and deepened, provides concrete pathways to achieve a promising form of empowered participatory governance with redistributive potential at the local level.