Participatory Budgeting in Serbia

Abstract

Recently, almost all European countries have to some extent embraced the concept of direct citizen participation in the public finance decision-making process. Serbia, however, is significantly behind the other (Western) European countries in the development of democratic capacities. Nonetheless, some early evidence of the ‘direct democracy’ can be found among the local self-governments of Serbia. This chapter aims to analyse contextual factors of participatory budgeting, explain the modus operandi, analyse the funds used for the participatory budgeting programmes, analyse the processes conducted to date, and delineate the main outcomes. As the results of the study indicate, participatory budgeting and direct democracy are still in the infantile phase of development.