Public Sector Governance and Accountability Series

Participatory Budgeting edited by Anwar Shah

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Participatory budgeting has been advanced by budget practitioners and academics as an important tool for inclusive and accountable governance and has been implemented in various forms in many developing countries around the globe. Through participatory budgeting, citizens have the opportunity to gain firsthand knowledge of government operations, influence government policies, and hold government to account. However, participatory processes also

run the risk of capture by interest groups. Captured processes may continue to promote elitism in government decision making.

This book provides an overview of the principles underlying participatory budgeting. It analyzes the merits and demerits of participatory budgeting practices around the world with a view to

guiding policy makers and practitioners on improving such practices in the interest of inclusive governance. This publication includes five regional surveys, and seven country case studies can

be found on the accompanying CD ROM. Participatory Budgeting advances the World Bank Institute agenda on knowledge sharing and learning from cross-country experiences in reforming public governance. It is intended to assist policy makers and practitioners in developing countries in making more-informed choices.