Electronic Participatory Budgeting: Supporting Community Deliberation and Decision-making with Online Tools

Participatory budgeting is a relatively new movement in public administration to involve citizens in civic decision-making. Electronic participatory budgeting can lower opportunity costs and engage more citizens in public budgeting. Drawing from research on participatory budgeting in particular and public administration, public policy, and information systems in general, this research establishes two normative frameworks: one to justify adopting participatory budgeting philosophically and practically, the other to justify supporting participatory budgeting with online decision support tools. This research then offers practical design guidelines, exemplified by a prototype designed for a participatory budgeting process in a small rural American town. The research concludes with recommendations for evaluations and enhancements of electronic participatory budgeting.