Citizen Budget (citizenbudget.com) is an online tool for conducting public budget consultations. This customizable budget simulator lets citizens modify certain municipal services and submit realistic, balanced budget proposals that express their budget priorities.
Originating in Puerto Alegre in 1989, Participatory Budgeting (PB) has been implemented throughout the world. Jarabacoa is not a place known for its strength of civil society or citizen engagement. This pilot program of PB using SMS aims to increase civil society and involve citizens for greater government transparency and accountability. PB is part of a broader better governance intitative of the World Bank Initative and United Nations Development Program. PB has been regarded as a "best practice" for open and more effective governance.
G1000 is a project to revitalize and "advise" Belgium's current representative democratic system by complementing it with deliberative democracy. It is a response to the increasing ineffectiveness of the representative democracy system, as evidenced in part by the 2010-11 parliamentary crisis.
On June 26th, 2010 AmericaSpeaks held a National Town Meeting in 58 cities around the United States called Our Budget, Our Economy, where 3,500 Americans discussed possible solutions to America’s long term fiscal challenges.
New York City has a historically corrupt and non-transparent budgetting process. The New York City Council is also known for its extremely non-transparent funding structure whereby the Speaker of the Majority can determine a City Council Member's discertionary budget within a range of $3-$11 Million Dollars. The New York City Council has also had a slew of corruption scandels linking council members to patronage and clientialism.
