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Solidarity Commons Protocol

Participatory Budgeting

Participatory budgeting matters because it turns budgeting into a public or member-facing governance process. The Participatory Budgeting Project describes participatory budgeting (PB) as a democratic process where community members decide how to spend part of a public budget. HUD Exchange similarly frames it as a citizen engagement process for allocating part of a public budget.

Basic Pattern

Section titled “Basic Pattern”

A PB process usually has a budget source, eligibility rules, proposal collection, project development, deliberation, voting or selection, implementation, and reporting. It may be run by a city, school, housing authority, foundation, cooperative, fiscal host, or community institution.

The important point is direct decision power over real resources. The process is not only survey feedback.

Why It Matters Here

Section titled “Why It Matters Here”

Participatory budgeting creates a chain of records:

  • Which fund, grant, budget line, or shared pool is available.
  • Who can propose, deliberate, vote, review, or implement.
  • Which proposals satisfy eligibility, feasibility, cost, and conflict rules.
  • Which votes, scores, assemblies, or consent processes selected the work.
  • Which implementation records prove that funded projects actually happened.

That chain connects governance, treasury, reporting, and public accountability. It also creates useful bridges to Fiscal Sponsorship when a sponsored project or funder needs formal approval records.

What Software Should Not Flatten

Section titled “What Software Should Not Flatten”

Participatory budgeting is not just polling. It can involve public money, procurement constraints, accessibility obligations, conflict rules, feasibility review, and implementation reporting.

Community software can hold participant-facing provenance and local rule checks. Public finance systems, procurement systems, official ledgers, and legal records remain external systems of record.

Section titled “Read Next”