Book chapter about participatory budgeting in Scotland and its interplay with public service reform, community empowerment and social justice.
Summary
The open access ebook Hope for democracy: 30 years of participatory budgeting worldwide is the largest collection of articles about participatory budgeting (PB) on a global scale.
One chapter outlines key lessons from the Scottish experience so far. Participatory budgeting in Scotland: The interplay of public service reform, community empowerment and social justice was co-written by members of the PB Working Group, which works with civil society and the Scottish Government to inform and advance the development of PB. The chapter is the result of collaborative work by a range of partners supported by What Works Scotland.
The authors highlight how PB has become central to policy action that aims to advance community empowerment and public service reform. The chapter shows the importance of the interplay between civil society and government in opening a window of opportunity for this democratic innovation.
They conclude that the mainstreaming of PB which is now under way in Scotland, carves up space for more complex participatory participatory and deliberative processes to decide on core local government budgets. However, for PB to make a substantial difference in the lives of citizens and communities, democratic innovators (i.e. politicians, activists, public servants) across Scotland will have to overcome challenges related to culture, capacity, politics, legitimacy and sustainability.
They identify two particularly important, and interrelated, areas for improvement in Scotland’s next phase of participatory budgeting; the need to increase the deliberative quality of PB processes and strengthen their focus on tackling inequalities.
They also identify issues facing this next phase including the requirement for properly resourced teams of participation practitioners and community organisers to support deliberative quality and the challenges in the relationship between PB and the institutions and practices of local democracy.
The chapters include a focus on global, scaling up and thematic dynamics along with regional surveys of participatory budgeting in Africa, Latin America, North America, Asia, Europe, and Oceania.
Download the publications
Get the chapter about Scotland, with introduction, references and author biographies:
Get the full open access book as a PDF
- Hope for Democracy: 30 years of Participatory Budgeting worldwide – available on the Oficina website
See a webinar about the Scottish chapter of the book
More details
Authors:
- Oliver Escobar, What Works Scotland
- Fiona Garven, Director of the Scottish Community Development Centre
- Chris Harkins, Senior Public Health Research Specialist at the Glasgow Centre for Population Health
- Kathleen Glazik, Policy Manager in the Scottish Government’s Community Empowerment Team
- Simon Cameron, Participatory Budgeting Development Manager for the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA)
- Ali Stoddart, Scotland Network Manager for the Democratic Society
Date of publication: July 2018
Publisher: oficina.org
Related resources
Review of First Generation Participatory Budgeting in Scotland
A paper reviewing the evidence about participatory budgeting processes in Scotland up to June 2016. It examines the growth and development of the first generation of participatory budgeting in Scotland in order to generate insight to support the strategic and operational leadership and delivery of future participatory budgeting.
October 2016
This paper outlines participatory budgeting design choices and delivery principles. It reviews international research, evaluations, grey literature and commentary and draws upon learning and insights from a PB pilot in Govanhill, Glasgow. This paper aims to support the strategic and operational delivery of participatory budgeting (PB) within Scotland and beyond.
December 2015
See all participatory budgeting publications and resources from What Works Scotland
