Conclusion and Outlook

In recent years, Germany has seen growing dissatisfaction with the political process, which has manifested in declining electoral turnout, especially at the municipal level. In an attempt to better to make public finance more transparent and to further citizen’s participation, some municipalities have adopted “Participatory Budgeting” (PB), with around 100 municipalities in Germany currently employing some form of PB. During a PB process, citizens are invited to debate with municipal politicians and administrators about the use of municipal revenues and expenditures.