Chapter five Participatory Budgeting in Berlin-Lichtenberg: An Example of Good Urban Governance?

Abstract

The legally prescribed local budget is the key planning and controlling instrument in German municipalities. It illustrates the local distributing conditions and reflects the locally determined political (distribution) priorities. The right to finalize the budget is exclusively reserved by the directly elected municipal council. Although citizen participation today is legally possible in nearly all local topics, the municipal budget remains taboo. Due to traditional reservations, many councilors doubt that citizen could deal with this complex business and expect an “explosion of requirements.” Therefore, the introduction of Participatory Budgeting (PB) can be regarded as part of the dispute about the opportunities and challenges of amending representative democracy by means of direct democracy at the local level in Germany.