Importance The article analyzes practices and mechanisms of public involvement of the Russian citizens into decision-making on local issues in terms of the compliance with the key principles of participatory budgeting. We also refer to some successful cases of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. Objectives The research analyzes the most frequent and usable practices in the Russian Federation that would have a lot of similar properties with participatory budgeting or applied as participatory budgeting program means. Methods We performed a comparative analysis of federal and regional practices intended to involve citizens into budgetary and managerial decision-making at the local level. Results In Russia, the involvement into local decision-making processes is basically effectuated through regional budgeting for citizens, public hearings, local self-government, village headmanship and self-taxation of citizens. The crowdsourcing mechanism is getting more and more popular, with participatory design and participatory management being less known. Each practice has its own goals, purposes, scope, legislative regulation and cannot be qualified as participatory budgeting. Conclusions and Relevance Active participatory budgeting, federally and municipally, requires a comprehensive analysis and promotion. The Russian regions accumulated a considerable amount of practices that were very feasible to design original tools and launch new participatory budgeting programs.
Keywords: participatory budgeting, self-taxation, citizens, crowdsourcing, public hearings, local self-government
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