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ABSTRACT
This paper builds on an intensive and unique survey of all Czech municipalities (n = 6,258) regarding the geoparticipatory spatial tools used in the decision-making processes of local administrations and the Index of Geoparticipation derived from the dataset. Furthermore, we have collected and analysed data regarding 238 participatory budgeting events in the Czech Republic from the years 2012–2020. This paper is divided into two sections. We investigate the relationships among the municipalities’ membership in the Healthy Cities of the Czech Republic network (HCCZ), as well as the municipalities’ levels of indebtedness and their performances in the Index of Geoparticipation and their usage of participatory budgeting. Our primary theory states that membership in HCCZ and higher values in the Index of Geoparticipation will support the use of participatory budgeting, while indebtedness will discourage municipalities from implementing participatory budgeting. We deepen the knowledge of participatory budgeting in the Czech Republic, while focusing on the qualitative analysis of projects that have been approved and implemented through the tool of participatory budgeting at the municipal level. Additionally, we examine what type of projects the funds are allocated to and how the characteristics of these projects change over time.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 We can compare this amount with the highest value from our Czech dataset in order to illustrate its significance. According to our dataset, the highest ratio of budgeting allocated to participatory budgeting was used by the municipality Bílá Voda (inhabited by 314 citizens) in 2017. They allocated 7,596 EUR, which was 8.19% of the total budget.
2 By ‘event’ we mean one participatory budgeting incident – usually one year-long process from the beginning (ideas generation), via project selections (participatory voting) to grant awards/project realisations.
3 The Gini coefficient of the Czech Republic was 0.253 in 2019 in comparison with Brazil where the coefficient reached the value of 0.489 in the same year (World Bank Citation2021).
4 There are 289,629 citizens living in Ostrava, while in the district Poruba it is 64,727 (both as of 2018; Czech Statistical Office, Citation2021).
6 Public forum is an event promoted by HCCZ.
7 Official name is Monitor – kompletní přehled veřejných financí.
9 According to our database there were 10 participatory budgeting events in 2016 in the Czech Republic, 36 in 2018 and 92 in 2020.
10 The Czech term ‘dobrá praxe’ can be translated into English as ‘good practice’. Link to the webpage is www.dobrapraxe.cz.
11 We have not been able to secure any additional information about participatory budgeting events from 2012–2014. Therefore Table 4 starts from 2015.
12 The amount of 376,403,959 CZK (the Czech crowns) was recalculated to Euros (EUR) at the exchange rate of 24.31 CZK=1 EUR.
13 We have not been able to secure any additional information about participatory budgeting events from 2012–2014. That is why we only used data from 2015–2020.