COVID-19 as a driver for e-participation: insights from participatory budgeting in Poland
COVID-19 as a driver for e-participation: insights from participatory budgeting in Poland

Summary/Abstract: Purpose– This paper explores how COVID-19 has impacted the shift from public participation by conventionalmeans to e-participation. Specifically, we investigated to what extent COVID-19 has been a driver for electronicparticipation in community participatory budgeting, which is a kind of residents’ consultation on how to spendpart of a budget on local projects. We expounded on the concept of e-participation and its sub-concepts andinvestigated how these were applicable to participatory budgeting.Design/methodology/approach– We interviewed 34 leading managers in five City Halls in Poland regardingtheir views and experiences with moving public interactions related to participatory budgeting online duringCOVID-19.Findings– The findings indicated that COVID-19 has accelerated the digitalization of the participatorybudgeting processes and, to some extent, may have increased community participation in general. We observedincreased e-participation in the forms of e-consultation, e-deliberation, e-lobbying and e-voting.Originality/value– Mainly, this study contributed to the field by providing empirical evidence that COVID-19increased various forms of e-participation as related to participatory budgeting. Moreover, we delineated variousforms of e-participation and mapped them to activities in participatory budgeting.

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