Participatory budgeting in public sector entities - framework development

Previous research on the participatory budgeting system in Romania reveals two particularly important aspects. First of all, citizens want active involvement in the process of public resource allocation and the adoption of a participatory budgeting system. Secondly, such a system is perceived by citizens as useful in efficiently allocating limited public resources, in line with citizens' priorities and needs, and a system that will allow for greater credibility and transparency in the public sector. Although in Romania participatory budgeting and active involvement of citizens is still a rare practice, citizens' desire to be heard does not, however, remain without an impact on the public system. Participatory practices begin to be used, although on a small scale. Being a new practice, difficult to achieve, it is necessary to establish the conceptual coordinates regarding the participatory budgeting practices in the public sector. In this context, the main objective of this paper is to establish the stages for the efficient implementation of the participatory budgeting process in the public sector, starting from the analysis of participatory practices in the international literature. We believe that the conceptualization of the participatory budgeting framework will support the adoption of an efficient participatory system and the active involvement of citizens in the allocation of public funds, and that at the same time it constitutes the basis for implementing legal regulations on the matter. Moreover, we believe that this conceptual framework may be useful to all countries wishing to implement a participatory budgeting system.