The December 2012 issue of the Journal of Public Deliberation focuses on participatory budgeting and its spread across the globe. Guest editors of the issue are long-time NCDD supporting member Janette Hartz-Karp from Curtin University, Australia, and Brian Wampler from Boise State University. In this special issue of the Journal of Public Deliberation, multiple faces of Participatory Budgeting programs are revealed. The articles demonstrate that there is no standardized set of “best practices” that governments are adopting, but there are a broader set of principles ... (continue)

The Institute for Local Government’s Public Engagement Program offers a draft (as of Jan 2013) 7-page document to help local officials design and prepare for public engagement processes that are effective, responsive and civil - even when participants hold very strong views. It begins… (continue)

This 2012 report describes findings from National Issues Forums held in 2012 during which people deliberated about possible approaches to dealing with the national debt. Download the 33-page PDF here. After months of paralyzing partisan disagreement, the nation’s political system now is struggling to avert a fiscal calamity. President Obama and congressional leaders, spurred on by business leaders and a broad range of interest groups, speak of the need to find ways to act. But even amid these hopeful signs, Democrats and Republicans remain divided on nearly ... (continue)

The latest issue of the Journal of Public Deliberation (Volume 8, Issue 2 – December 2012) focuses on “The Spread of Participatory Budgeting Across the Globe: Adoption, Adaptation, and Impacts.”  Guest editors for this issue are NCDD members Janette Hartz-Karp of Curtin University & Briam Wampler, Boise State University. Here is the issue introduction: Since its humble beginnings in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre in the early 1990s, Participatory Budgeting (PB) programs are now being adopted by governments across the globe. This special issue ... (continue)

This article by Celina Su of City University of New York was published in the December 2012 issue of the online Journal of Public Deliberation, which focuses on participatory budgeting and its spread across the globe. Guest editors of the issue are long-time NCDD supporting member Janette Hartz-Karp from Curtin University, Australia, and Brian Wampler from Boise State University. Abstract: In this thought piece, I attempt to contextualize New York City’s inaugural participatory budgeting (PB) process in the larger landscape of American political participation. I discuss how ... (continue)

This article by Mariana Lopes Alves, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, and Giovanni Allegretti, Center for Social Studies – UC, was published in the December 2012 issue of the online Journal of Public Deliberation, which focuses on participatory budgeting and its spread across the globe. Guest editors of the issue are long-time NCDD supporting member Janette Hartz-Karp from Curtin University, Australia, and Brian Wampler from Boise State University. Much has been said about Participatory Budgeting. Still, how to make it a successful and long-lasting experience remains ... (continue)

This article by Stephanie McNulty of Franklin and Marshall College was published in the December 2012 issue of the online Journal of Public Deliberation, which focuses on participatory budgeting and its spread across the globe. Guest editors of the issue are long-time NCDD supporting member Janette Hartz-Karp from Curtin University, Australia, and Brian Wampler from Boise State University. This article focuses on the unlikely success of Peru’s top-down participatory budget experience. As part of democratization and decentralization efforts in the early 2000s, Peruvians mandated participatory budgeting ... (continue)

This article by  Nivek K. Thompson, University of Western Sydney, was published in the December 2012 issue of the online Journal of Public Deliberation, which focuses on participatory budgeting and its spread across the globe. Guest editors of the issue are long-time NCDD supporting member Janette Hartz-Karp from Curtin University, Australia, and Brian Wampler from Boise State University. For the first time in Australia a local council has used a deliberative democracy approach to obtain citizen advice on key decisions regarding the full range of Council ... (continue)

This article by authors Josh Lerner and Donata Secondo of The Participatory Budgeting Project was published in the December 2012 issue of the online Journal of Public Deliberation, which focuses on participatory budgeting and its spread across the globe. Guest editors of the issue are long-time NCDD supporting member Janette Hartz-Karp from Curtin University, Australia, and Brian Wampler from Boise State University. In the pilot year of Participatory Budgeting in New York City, around 8,000 people decided how to spend almost $6 million across four city ... (continue)

The December 2012 issue of the Journal of Public Deliberation focuses on participatory budgeting and its spread across the globe. Guest editors of the issue are long-time NCDD supporting member Janette Hartz-Karp from Curtin University, Australia, and Brian Wampler from Boise State University. This article by Benjamin Goldfrank, Whitehead School of Diplomacy, Seton Hall University, addresses the long-standing controversy over the World Bank’s role in the promotion of participatory budgeting (PB). Some on the left have celebrated the Bank’s funding and advocacy for PB as signifying the legitimacy ... (continue)