Pursuing Good Governance through Participatory Budgeting: Some Insights from Concrete Experiences in European Municipalities

International institutions involved in economic development emphasized the importance of governance in the public sector (Woods, 2000). Indeed, since 1989, the World Bank has established a framework for 'good' governance (GG) (Lateef, 2016). This concept was also explicitly noted by the International Monetary Fund, which based the definition on “the transparency of government accounts, the effectiveness of public resource management, and the stability and transparency of the economic and regulatory environment for private sector activity” (IMF, 1997). In addition, the OECD (2007) defined GG as follows: “Good governance is characterized by participation, transparency, accountability, rule of law, effectiveness, equity.” From its beginnings, GG relates to democracy, community participation, accountability, efficiency, and responsiveness (Kim et al., 2005). In particular, the link between participation and democracy (Michels, 2012) appears as a critical factor since participation is necessary for democracy (Boyte, 2005). Thus, citizen involvement has emerged as a central feature of a 'new' type of GG (Blomgren et al., 2005). Discussions about GG have also extended to the level of local government (Lawton & Macaulay, 2014), further highlighting the link between governments and citizens and emphasizing the concepts of participation, democracy, engagement, transparency, and trust (Denters et al., 2016). Community involvement is achievable through participatory governance and budgeting, which emerges when public institutions apply interactive political leadership (Sørensen & Torfing, 2019), involving the community in policymaking (Edwards, 2001). This work will analyze the possible role of participatory budgeting (PB) in developing the founding principles of GG in local governments. The work develops a framework for analyzing the characteristic features of GG through an analysis of the fundamental documents on this topic provided by international institutions and a literature review in public management studies. Consequently, the work applies a qualitative research methodology based on research interviews with public officials and local politicians directly involved in PB practices. The research interviews have been processed through a content analysis conducted following the approach developed by Gioia et al. (2013). The characteristic features of GG were structured into sublevels and discussed for consensus, following the recommendations of Vaismoradi et al. (2013). The author used a specific software for coding, and the texts of the research interviews were analyzed line by line and word by word. The research is currently ongoing. About its expected results, on the one hand, this work will lead to the definition of a framework of the characteristic features of GG applicable at the local level. On the other hand, based on already consolidated PB experiences, the research will offer initial results of an exploratory nature on the ability of PB processes to encourage the development of the constitutive principles of GG at the local government level. SDG+Target: 16.6; 16.7; 16.10; 17.17. This contribution relates to the topic of the Conference because it analyzes the potential of participatory budgeting to foster greater awareness of local communities in participating in governmental decision-making mechanisms, encouraging the promotion of new development strategies for environmental and social sustainability at the local level.