Data

General Issues
Planning & Development
Governance & Political Institutions
Specific Topics
Political Rights
Public Participation
Censorship
Parent of this Case
Participatory Renovation of Ciompi Square (Florence, Italy)
Files
“公民参与的实践”奖.pdf
Links
“免费午餐免费谈话”-参与式预算编制:公共治理的创新方法
Videos
新北市
Start Date
End Date
Time Limited or Repeated?
A single, defined period of time
Purpose/Goal
Develop the civic capacities of individuals, communities, and/or civil society organizations
Approach
Research
Leadership development
Direct decision making
Spectrum of Public Participation
Involve
Total Number of Participants
450
Open to All or Limited to Some?
Mixed
Recruitment Method for Limited Subset of Population
Captive Sample
Targeted Demographics
Stakeholder Organizations
Experts
General Types of Methods
Community development, organizing, and mobilization
Public meetings
Research or experimental method
General Types of Tools/Techniques
Collect, analyse and/or solicit feedback
Recruit or select participants
Primary Organizer/Manager
The Center for Deliberative Democracy at Stanford University
Type of Organizer/Manager
Local Government
For-Profit Business
Type of Funder
For-Profit Business
Local Government
Staff
Yes
Volunteers
Yes
Evidence of Impact
Yes
Types of Change
Changes in civic capacities
Conflict transformation
Changes in how institutions operate
Changes in people’s knowledge, attitudes, and behavior
Changes in public policy
Implementers of Change
Stakeholder Organizations
Appointed Public Servants
Formal Evaluation
No

CASE

Participatory Budgeting in Sanxia District of New Taipei City, Taiwan

General Issues
Planning & Development
Governance & Political Institutions
Specific Topics
Political Rights
Public Participation
Censorship
Parent of this Case
Participatory Renovation of Ciompi Square (Florence, Italy)
Files
“公民参与的实践”奖.pdf
Links
“免费午餐免费谈话”-参与式预算编制:公共治理的创新方法
Videos
新北市
Start Date
End Date
Time Limited or Repeated?
A single, defined period of time
Purpose/Goal
Develop the civic capacities of individuals, communities, and/or civil society organizations
Approach
Research
Leadership development
Direct decision making
Spectrum of Public Participation
Involve
Total Number of Participants
450
Open to All or Limited to Some?
Mixed
Recruitment Method for Limited Subset of Population
Captive Sample
Targeted Demographics
Stakeholder Organizations
Experts
General Types of Methods
Community development, organizing, and mobilization
Public meetings
Research or experimental method
General Types of Tools/Techniques
Collect, analyse and/or solicit feedback
Recruit or select participants
Primary Organizer/Manager
The Center for Deliberative Democracy at Stanford University
Type of Organizer/Manager
Local Government
For-Profit Business
Type of Funder
For-Profit Business
Local Government
Staff
Yes
Volunteers
Yes
Evidence of Impact
Yes
Types of Change
Changes in civic capacities
Conflict transformation
Changes in how institutions operate
Changes in people’s knowledge, attitudes, and behavior
Changes in public policy
Implementers of Change
Stakeholder Organizations
Appointed Public Servants
Formal Evaluation
No

Participatory budgeting in Lodz started in 2014, through which citizens can decide to spend money on their own needs. In terms of the citizens' budget, the city ranks as one of the most voted cities, which is a testament to the budget's high popularity among Rhodes residents.

Problems and Purpose 

Participatory budgeting is subject to revision and transformation due to political trends, social developments and economic conditions at various times. (For more information see the link of the methodology.) But no matter how it is changed, it will not change the purpose of serving citizens.

Sopot's City Council issued a resolution in 2011 to introduce a civic budget, marking the first time such a system has been introduced in Poland. However, Lodz's citizen budget system had its first participatory budget in 2014. The event is seen as a platform to improve the quality of life of some citizens.

Lodz established a citizen's budget agency to give citizens an opportunity to participate in the process of where public funds are spent. By submitting proposals for investment, citizens can express areas where they feel they need more attention and support from their municipality, implement their ideas, and ultimately have a positive impact on the current situation. In addition, they express their preferences in a specific system that provides the direction for the agency to determine urban development.

 

Background History and Context

At first, the idea for participatory budgeting in Lodz came from a local non-government organization. The non-government organization laid the groundwork for participatory computing in Lodz in 2011 with a campaign called "Lodz Residents Have a Say." The residents of the five residential areas may propose, plan and select an investment project to be carried out in the local community with the funds of the local municipal autonomous auxiliary units. This has had a positive impact and has won the approval of the municipal authorities, who have decided to implement participatory budgeting more widely in Lodz. A year later, on 16th May 2012, the City Council unanimously passed a resolution to introduce participatory budgeting in Lodz.

The participatory budget in Lodz takes the form of a public consultation submitted by Lodz residents over the age of 16 and then verified by substantive units of the government. The Autonomous Government of Lodz has made the submission process of projects as simple as possible in order to engage directly with the population. The agency compiled a simple application questionnaire and announced that a project would receive preliminary approval only if 15 or more supporters signed on. Also, unlike the traditional way of voting, people who live in Lodz but are not Lodz citizens can take part. Residents vote directly for the projects they want to implement. In this process, there is no intermediary organization to vote on behalf of residents. The goal is to legalize participation in the budget and increase the participation of residents. The Government conducts information and education campaigns to promote public understanding of the budget. The activity is carried out by a non-governmental organization selected through a formal competitive process.

In the first version of the participatory budget, the pool of funds amounted to 20 million zlotys, only 0.58 per cent of the total revenue. At that time, 25 per cent of this amount was set aside for the tasks of all cities, while the remaining 15 million zlotys was allocated to the various districts of Lodz. In subsequent editions, keeping everything else equal, the citizens of Lodz were able to use 40 million zlotys, double the budget of the first edition. The third edition included the possibility that the applicants themselves could agree on proposals for the same area. This makes it possible for similar projects to be combined or merged into a single project. In Version 4, there is no limit to the estimated task cost amount for a housing estate task. At the same time, development of the park's public Spaces continues. The aim is to modernize the recreational area and expand it to other areas of the park. By 2019, 709 projects with a total value of 190 million zlotys had been implemented. In this process, the public bicycle policy of Rhodes was launched by the citizens, which is an excellent investment for the civic budget. In addition, in the two editions of the civic budget for 2020 and 2021, projects such as anti-smog and the launch of tourist tram lines were implemented.

 

Organizing, Supporting, and Funding Entities 

As part of a national initiative in Poland, the citizens' budget was established for the first time in Sopot in 2011. And Lodz formally began implementing a citizens' budget in 2013 after passing a proposal for its adoption. The citizens' budget is primarily managed by the city hall and the city council as a direct democratic project of participatory budgeting on a city-wide scale. Additionally, this effort is supported by individuals and Non-Governmental Organisations.

Firstly, the work relating to the Lodz citizens' budget is being done by two major institutions that have been established. The Committee for Civic Budgets, a formal committee under the city council, is in charge of monitoring, evaluating, and recommending modifications to the civic budget processes. Furthermore, the Lodz Vice President was appointed to lead the Coordinating Committee for the Civic Budget. This action can likely be seen as elevating the rank of participatory budget in urban policy in comparison to previous editions of the civic budget where the Director of the Office for Social Participation served as the Team Chairman. There are four heads of relevant departments, one member of the city council, and a plenipotentiary of the president of Lodz for cooperation with local Non-Governmental Organizations. This team was in charge of making the final decision regarding the applications that were approved for voting and carrying out the tasks under the Lodz participatory budget.   

Secondly, the preparation was carried out by the City of Lodz in cooperation with two organizations: the Association of Topographies and the Normal City Phenomenon Foundation(this association is only involved with the first edition work of the civic budget)carried out this task as a public task to carry out a promotional, informational and educational campaign following an open call for proposals for NGOs, was commissioned for implementation after an open tender for NGOs in the start stages(the period of 2013-2017).

The local self-government, which currently oversees the initiative, developed and implemented the participatory budget concept. However, the operationalization of activities may involve other parties, particularly in the early stages. Each edition of the participatory budget allows participants from residential communities, school communities, NGOs, and interest groups to submit projects, but only as individuals. The related individuals and organizations will also actively campaign for the project's eventual implementation.

The city of Lodz's municipal budget, which is a separate component, provides all of the funding for the participatory budget. And in perspective of the annual budget year, Lodz citizens jointly decide on the allocation. The detailed budget amount approved forpaticipatory budgeting in lodz is shown in the chart below:

Due to the accelerated application submission deadline in 2020 brought on by the local spread of pandemic, the budget allocation for that year was drastically reduced.

 

Participant Recruitment and Selection

The purpose of the Lodz participatory budgeting is to directly involve locals in the decision-making process. The 36 city subdivisions that engage in the participatory budget process involve both the city and neighbourhood levels. The right to submit a project application and select the tasks submitted for implementation from among the verified tasks by voting is available to all Lodz residents who are 16 years of age or older (to the ballot box, by post or electronically).

There are two main tasks which are consultation and information and promotion campaign of participant recruitment. The citizens of the City of Lodz were first consulted as part of this work's initial phases of proposal submission and voting, which is essential for public participation.

Then, local officials work with NGOs to carry out informational and promotional initiatives for the Lodz Civic Budget. Additionally, they are meant to assist locals in the planning stages of presenting their suggestions and casting their votes throughout the Civic Budgets process.

These activities include, but are not limited to, organising information points that offered assistance both directly and by phone and email, holding neighbourhood meetings, maintaining a dedicated official Lodz participatory budgeting website and social media, putting up posters, opening an advice desk (appointment required during the pandemic), and even holding the "Civic Budget Festival" in Lodz. The city administration has a supportive approach toward this important task. The Mayor of Lodz, several City Hall members, and a team of volunteer officials participated in a door-to-door campaign when they visited Lodz people and presented the tasks submitted to the civic budget.

Since the project's launch, the municipality of Lodz has organised special community meetings to inform the deaf and hard of hearing about participatory budgeting in an effort to be inclusive. In order to facilitate online voting, all municipal libraries have been made accessible to citizens who lack electronic voting equipment and the old paper voting system has been kept in place for those who experience technical issues.

The operations carried out by applicants, organisations, schools, and other institutions to promote projects submitted to the civic budget are notable since those who propose projects do so in order to win, at their own expense. Meetings on housing estates and leaflets are frequently utilised in this context.

Since the 1990s, the environment has been set up for a democratic process of voluntary citizen engagement in managing public affairs. A high participation percentage can support community growth and social harmony. No real incentives exist to encourage residents to take part in this participatory budgeting. Based on the experience of other important Polish cities and, more crucially, the expectation that it will enhance the local and individual lives, public engagement is spontaneous.

The participation of participatory budgeting in Lodz is shown in the chart below:

 

Methods and Tools Used

The overall approach adopted by the government is participatory budgeting, where the government puts funds for the construction of public projects that are of immediate interest to the public, to be discussed and decided by the public, making budgeting more open and transparent, thus increasing trust in local authorities and promoting public knowledge and awareness of urban management and its possibilities. It also allows for more effective priority setting and makes adequate use of limited resource.

First, the Lodz government created a straightforward application questionnaire that just needed 15 supporters to sign a consent in order to simplify the presentation of the project during the initial stage. In particular, the government has set up a special advisory centre. If residents have an idea but do not know how to draft a submission, they can use the services of the special advice center, which has professional staff to help them draft a budget submission, but these drafts don’t include projects that don’t require financial support. After the project is submitted, the Estate Committee provides comments on the project. The revised projects are submitted to the Citizens Budget Committee for consideration, and the projects that have been considered and approved are finalized by the Coordinating Committee and the list of projects is published. If the draft is not approved for a vote, leaders may submit an appeal to the mayor, and the City Council considers the appeal and publishes a list of voting items, and announces the polling place. After the announcement of the voting projects, to promote civic education, the government and the neighborhood organized a number of meetings and other promotional events. They also filmed pertinent TV ads to help the public comprehend the project budget. At the same time, other NGOs also promoted the initiative in public areas, such as posting information and posters on city light boxes and buildings, and publishing free newspapers on participatory budgeting, so that more people would join the voting campaign for participatory budgeting. The government has also created a website on participatory budgeting, and residents can learn about the project in real-time through the website to facilitate their decision-making, while residents can make their own suggestions on the website.

In terms of voting, online voting is available and still retains the mode of paper voting, the government has set up paper polling stations in different areas of the city and voting lasts for one to two weeks. In addition, for the budget vote between 2022-2023, residents will be able to vote electronically in branches of the city library. Residents vote directly to determine which projects receive funding, without any intermediaries. The order of project execution is determined by the number of votes cast, with priority given to the project that receives the most votes, and when there are insufficient funds to complete the next project, the project that receives fewer votes is selected.

 

What Went On: Process, Interaction, and Participation 

The citizens' budget system in Lodz started in 2014, but preparations for the introduction of a citizens' budget process have been underway since 2012. A team was appointed by the mayor to develop the operating and implementation principles after the city council passed a resolution to begin preparations for the event and develop a Rhodes version of the budget. This team consists of 23 members, including members of the City Council and the Estate Council. The team's task was to develop the rules for the first version of the citizens' budget and to carry out an information and education campaign aimed at residents. The campaign was carried out by an NGO in 2013 and as part of the campaign workshops were held with residents during which they were informed about the idea and possibilities of a participatory budget. The budget was conducted in the form of a public consultation in which residents could propose and choose tasks. Every resident of Rhodes can submit a proposal for a task, but the application must be supported by 15 other residents.

Each year, the whole process of preparing and implementing the citizens' budget can be divided into 5 stages.

1. information, education and communication activities on the citizens' budget process (organised by the local authorities) - March to August

2. Information, education and communication activities on the citizens' budget process and proposed projects (organised by NGOs and local leaders) - March to June

3. Verification of proposed projects - July-August

4. Voting - September

5. Evaluation and selection of projects - November to December

6. Project implementation (January-December of the following year)

The Social Participation Office works with other organisational units in the Lodz City Office to verify the tasks submitted. During the validation phase, consultation and advancement meetings are held on specific proposed tasks, with the authors of the proposed tasks meeting with residents and representatives of the City of Lodz office. Minor modifications to the tasks are allowed with the agreement of the authors of the proposed tasks. 16 years and older Rhodes residents choose the tasks submitted for implementation by voting (by mail or electronically into a ballot box). The tasks that received the most votes were recommended for implementation before funding ran out. If there are not enough findings in the program to complete the next task, the task that received fewer votes is considered.


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