Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: An Institutional Theory of Participatory Budgeting

政治学博士论文研究：参与式预算的制度理论

• 批准号: 1423877
• 负责人: Margaret Levi
• 金额: $ 1.91万
• 依托单位: University of Washington
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-07-01 至 2016-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1423877&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Political; Science

The project addresses several critical questions about the connection between decision-making practices and democracy: How does participatory budgeting, a process in which a government sets aside part of a public budget for the community to allocate, impact patterns of political behavior and civic engagement in the communities where it is implemented? Are investments in new opportunities for public involvement in budgeting worthwhile? This project tests assertions about the democratic impact of small-scale governance reforms like participatory budgeting. It advances a new mid-level institutional theory of participatory budgeting that describes how a new set of rules around budgeting may enable new patterns of communication and mobilization within a political community. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods in a comparative evaluation of four cases of participatory budgeting in cities in the US and UK, this research provides a unique set of empirical tests of causal claims about the democratic effects of giving people the chance to directly control local budget decisions.Intellectual Merit: This project investigates fundamental claims about the democratic impact of narrowly defined participatory governance institutions like participatory budgeting. It integrates disparate but related literatures explaining civic engagement, political institutions, and democratic quality, empirically testing assertions advanced by value-based theories of democracy. In developing an institutional theory of how participatory budgeting may transform the political behavior and preferences of people in a community, this project makes a substantive contribution to ongoing debates within political science about the relationship between institutions and what is generally referred to as political culture, the general pattern of beliefs and behaviors that establish default orientations toward political practices in a community. As a new empirical contribution, it also provides one of the first comparative evaluations of participatory budgeting to draw systematic cross-country comparisons in developed democracies. The project takes a much-needed step toward a general understanding of what distinguishes participatory budgeting as a common set of institutions and how these institutions operate within a political community. Broader Impact: This research has several broader impacts. First, it is of direct interest and application to policy makers, government officials, and community leaders. Follow-up to fieldwork has also included distributing specially targeted reports from the research back to participants and local organizers of participatory budgeting processes so they can reflect on and incorporate the observations of their process. Second, this project supports the education of undergraduate students by giving them the chance for extensive research experience. Third, during field research, the Co-PI has been able to provide technical assistance to process organizers to improve their own internal research and evaluation capacity. Finally, this research directly contributes to the economic well-being of the country. More efficient and responsive budgeting processes, as supported by effective and targeted implementation of participatory budgeting will have a direct impact on the economic health of urban areas in the US, by making cities more economically competitive and establishing a better environment for business development.

该项目解决了有关决策实践与民主之间联系的几个关键问题：参与式预算如何，在该过程中，政府搁置了公共预算的一部分，以供社区分配，影响政治行为的影响模式和在实施社区的社区中的公民参与模式？在公众参与预算方面的新机会是否值得？该项目测试了关于参与性预算等小规模治理改革对民主影响的主张。它推进了一种新的中级参与预算制度理论，该理论描述了一套围绕预算的新规则如何在政治社区内实现新的沟通和动员模式。在对美国和英国城市的四个参与预算案例的比较评估中，使用定性和定量方法，这项研究提供了一系列关于因果关系主张的独特经验检验，即使人们直接控制当地预算决策的民主效应。智能预算优点：该项目调查了与范围范围内的民主影响力相似的基本限制性的范围。它整合了解释公民参与，政治制度和民主质量的不同但相关的文献，并通过基于价值的民主理论提出的主张来测试主张。在发展一个机构理论，即参与式预算如何改变社区中人们的政治行为和偏好时，该项目对政治科学中关于制度之间关系的持续辩论做出了实质性的贡献，以及通常被称为政治文化，信仰和行为的一般模式，即对社区中政治实践建立违规方向的一般模式。 作为一种新的经验贡献，它还提供了参与式预算的首次比较评估之一，以在发达的民主国家进行系统的越野比较。该项目迈出了急需的一步，朝着对将参与预算视为共同机构以及这些机构如何在政治社区中如何运作的一般理解的一般理解。更广泛的影响：这项研究具有更广泛的影响。首先，它是对政策制定者，政府官员和社区领导人的直接兴趣和应用。对实地调查的后续工作还包括将专门针对性的报告从研究中分配给参与者预算过程的参与者和本地组织者，以便他们可以反思并纳入其过程的观察结果。其次，该项目通过为他们提供广泛的研究经验的机会来支持本科生的教育。第三，在现场研究期间，Co-Pi能够为处理组织者提供技术援助，以提高自己的内部研究和评估能力。最后，这项研究直接有助于该国的经济福祉。 通过有效和有针对性的参与预算实施的支持，更有效和响应的预算过程将直接影响美国城市地区的经济健康，通过使城市在经济上具有更大的竞争力并建立更好的业务发展环境。