In a new blog entitled ‘let them eat kale’ by Peter Bryant, PB Partners associate and head of community engagement at Our Life, he argues that DevoManc is an excellent opportunity to practise devolved democracy. In a memorable quote by Josh Lerner, director of the North American PB Project: "democracy has become the political version… Read More
News
Latest news about Participatory Budgeting
Tunisia is re-building democracy through Participatory Budgeting
Tunisia has been in the news recently for all the wrong reasons, including a horrific terrorist attack on the beach, in which many British citizens were killed. However the Arab Spring of 2011 sparked a change of government and the story of Tunisian democracy is not all bad. In a detailed blog and interview there… Read More
Iceland adopts participatory democracy over austerity as its solution to the banking crisis… and it works
Iceland was one of the worst hit countries of the international banking crisis of 2008, with many of its major banks bankrupted. Since then, whilst going through some hard times it has been recognised as bouncing back. Participatory democracy, including forms of participatory budgeting, has been at the core of its strategy to re-engage citizens… Read More
Scotland’s Community Empowerment Bill opens the door to participatory budgeting
On the 17th June 2015 the Scottish Parliament passed the long awaited Community Empowerment Bill (Scotland), with a strong focus on devolving power to communities and citizens. Among a raft of proposals around asset transfer, land ownership and strengthening the role of citizens in the work of community planning partnerships were new ministerial powers that… Read More
Boston engaging thousands of young people in democracy
The City of Boston is making history for a second consecutive year as the city has allocated $1,000,000 of Boston’s capital funds for the youth to spend as they see fit! This process is called Youth Lead the Change: Participatory Budgeting Boston. Participatory Budgeting in Boston started with a series of public events in January,… Read More
Closing the commissioning gap: Supporting social enterprise through Participatory Budgeting
A new blog on the What Works Scotland website highlights the opportunities for stimulating and supporting social enterprise and so plug the leaking of public funding out of a community. Written by Jez Hall of PB Partners, the blog identifies the relationship between participatory budgeting and the recommendations of the Christie Commission, a report in… Read More
50,000 New Yorkers take part in the latest round of Participatory Budgeting
The USA based Center for Effective Government has just published a blog reporting the rapid growth of Participatory Budgeting in New York, since the first time it was trialled there only a few years ago. In 2011 pioneering elected officials of 4 city districts each put $1m of their own discretionary funds into a new… Read More
Fund My Community: $1m dollar online PB launched by Government of South Australia
The Government of South Australia has launched a $1m online programme called ‘Fund My Community‘. That’s Australian dollars so about £500,000. The initiative is part of its ‘Your Say’ programme, and they have created a video to help promote the idea. Through Fund My Community, the Government of South Australian is using participatory budgeting to… Read More
Which parties support a more participatory democracy in the 2015 election?
Politicians like to say they are listening to citizens and around the world participatory budgeting(PB) is shown to be an effective and meaningful way to do just that. As we approach the 2015 election Jez Hall of the PB Partners has done a quick trawl of the parties websites and manifestos. Below is what he… Read More
Improvement Service publishes briefing on participatory budgeting for elected members
With editorial support from PB Partners a new resource for elected members on the opportunities brought by participatory budgeting(PB) has been published by the Scotland based Improvement Service. The Improvement Service (IS) developed an Elected Members Briefing Series to help elected members keep pace with key issues affecting local government. New ideas for more develoved commissioning… Read More