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Participatory budgeting model leads to different applications in Finland, Poland, and the UK

Published on 25.5.2021
Tampere University
Pauliina Lehtonen. Kuva: Jonne Renvall
According to Pauliina Lehtonen’s study, the participatory budgeting model has been applied in very different ways around the world. In Tampere, the model has been tried but there has not been enough political will to make it an established practice. Photograph: Jonne Renvall
Tampere in Finland, Greater Manchester in the UK, and the city of Łódź in Poland have developed different applications of the international participatory budgeting (PB) model.

Pauliina Lehtonen, an Academy of Finland Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Tampere University, has analysed the application of PB in a recent research article published in the Policy Studies journal.

Participatory budgeting is a participatory model developed in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 1989 that involves citizens in planning and deciding on the use of the common tax revenues. The model has been used by more than 3,000 cities world-wide.

Lehtonen describes the first PB application of the city of Tampere as the pop-up model where a growing interest in PB exists but there is not enough political will to make it permanent.

PB came to Tampere relatively late, in the 2010s, and it was first applied in the Tesoma neighbourhood in 2014. According to Lehtonen’s study, the model was initially new to all the parties involved: authorities, researchers, and residents. The process of applying the model brought different parties together and highlighted the need for multi-professional work in involving residents across the city’s different departments.

After the Tesoma pilot, Tampere implemented PB across the city in 2020 and is currently evaluating the further use of the method.

Lehtonen describes Łódź as a representative of traditional PB, which has developed the model into a permanent participatory practice.

There is a positive attitude towards PB in Łódź, but the people also mistrust the authorities. The permanent office for PB works for transparency in the decision-making process, but Lehtonen’s interview data shows that residents are not entirely convinced of the model’s transparency.

Poland reformed legislation in 2018 making local governments unable to change or dismiss the proposals produced by the PB process to an essential degree.

According to Lehtonen, PB in Greater Manchester is like a do-it-yourself model where independent local actors use it to promote social justice in a situation where there is dissatisfaction with the administration’s ability to solve local problems.

The Manchester model has developed into a counterforce to central governance, which encourages residents to resist injustice. The model lacks the resources and political support to become an established part of local government. The distance between governance and residents has led to the PB process being organised through NGOs. It has also strengthened the model and developed its independent role.

Pauliina Lehtonen: Policy on the move: the enabling settings of participation in participatory budgeting. Policy Studies 2021.

Enquiries:
Academy of Finland Postdoctoral Research Fellow Pauliina Lehtonen
tel. +358 50 318 5937
pauliina.lehtonen [at] tuni.fi