Financial Journal

p. 25-45

Authors: Giovanni Allegretti, Matteo Bassoli, Greta Colavolpe

Over the past few years, Italy has been setting the stage for different democratic innovations, especially those that have been implemented at municipal (or sub-municipal) level in different parts of the country. The expansion of Participatory Budgeting has been a remarkable one, accompanied by the diffusion of regional laws that were adopted to promote a culture of more intense civic participation. Moving from an overview of the recent diffusion of Participatory Budgeting in different areas of the country, this article proposes a reflection on what kind of added value the existence of this legal provision has led to the promotion of participation at a regional level and what this may represent. The construction of the Italian branch of Participatory Budgeting’s World Atlas offers an opportunity to assess legal provisions’ contribution to the diffusion and enrootment of participatory practices, especially in smaller-scale municipalities. Through zooming into some cases (such as Sicily, Emilia Romagna, Apulia and Tuscany, or Lazio in the last few years) the authors argue that the formalisation of participatory practices into legal frameworks today is an important but not a sufficient factor that diffuses and enroots participatory culture in local territories, and that a supplement of monitoring structures and detailed studies would help make challenges and added values of regional law frameworks clearer.

p. 61-69

Authors: Natalia G. Lukyanova

The article is devoted to summarizing the experience of implementing participatory budgeting practices in Saint Petersburg over a five-year period as well as the role and forms of citizen involvement in budget decision-making. An innovative form of public discussion, through the participation of citizens in the work of the budget commission, allowed one not only to attract a significant number of citizens to solve the problems of the metropolis, but also to increase the efficiency of budget fund spending. Special attention is paid to the testing of a new type of public participation in the development of the urban environment, namely participatory design, one of the effects of which is the possibility of attracting extra-budgetary sources of funding. The practice of participatory design is already in demand among potential investors and has shown good results in projects aimed at the development and improvement of newly built-up areas. School participatory budgeting practices were successful as well, in which high school students were asked to work out projects not only for the development of school infrastructure, but also that of the territory of Saint Petersburg’s districts. The experience gained allowed us to identify the main disadvantages and advantages of different practices, which will be taken into account when scaling them.

p. 83-92

Authors: Natalia G. Ivanova, Vitalii A. Fedosov

Participatory budgeting in the Russian Federation is experiencing a new round of development. The practices of participatory budgeting, which are implemented by state and local governments, are becoming more and more diverse. Some of them involve people who are not well-represented in standard practices, for example, people with disabilities, young people etc. The authors conduct a study of the development of participatory budgeting practices for young people, highlight their characteristic features, and summarize foreign and Russian experience. A key aspect of designing the practice of participatory budgeting is its goal setting. The article systematizes the goals of participatory budgeting practices for “adults” and, based on the available data, determines the priorities of goal setting for youth participatory budgeting practices. The authors substantiate the relationship between the practices of participatory budgeting for young people and programs to improve budget literacy.

p. 114-129

Authors: Vladislav V. Bukharsky

This article examines the impact of intraregional fiscal decentralization on fiscal incentives for local governments in the Russian Federation. It is expected that decentralization contributes to the economic development of territories through two channels: 1) a higher level of budgetary (tax) decentralization gives more opportunities to local authorities to realize the economic potential of the territory; 2) stable decentralization of revenue sources preserves incentives for local authorities to realize such opportunities. In comparison with the widespread approach to measuring these incentives in terms of gross regional product, the author uses indicators of entrepreneurship, the development of which is mostly within the competence of local authorities. As a measure and stability of decentralization, the norms for deducting revenues to local budgets are used. No clear and conclusive evidence of the impact of decentralization is found: due to the low financial security of subnational budgets overall, the transfer of standards can rather be understood as financial assistance to the lower budget, in particular because the size of the average transferred standard grows with the level of subsidies in the region. At the same time, there are certain positive results: the very fact of the transfer of the revenues levied in connection with the application of the simplified taxation system is accompanied by an increase in entrepreneurial activity in the region. A similar effect is exerted by the stability of the revenues on personal income tax and corporate property tax. In general, it can also be pointed out that local authorities have low indicators of the level and stability (rigidity) of budget decentralization.