Articulo_1_EN_Doxa_28

accountability and transparency (Planchuelo, 2018). For this reason, it is a case of reference. The information is available in digital format with free access.

Qualitative data on the amount of money allocated to participatory budgets during their three years of existence (2016, 2017 and 2018) have been taken from the website; the number of projects approved, proposals submitted, those that have reached the final phase, and those considered unfeasible. This same source has provided us with reviews of the number of citizens who have participated, classifying them by gender and age group. This information has been sufficient for the purpose of analyzing citizen interest in this process and its evolution over time.

On the other hand, in order to determine the participation of organised groups, all the projects approved in the three years have been coded and placed in a table, including as variables their area of action, the number of votes received, the amount of money allocated, and whether they were presented individually or by a group.

This last fact is undoubtedly the most important one for the objective we are pursuing, but it is also the most subjective as it depends on the discretion of the person submitting it to indicate whether it is being done on his or her own behalf or on behalf of a group. In an attempt to minimize errors, we have considered that the following are collective proposals: all of those indicated as such in the corresponding section; those that refer to Local Forums; and those that include some reference to a support group in their text.

The rest have been coded as individual proposals. As for the selection of the sample, it is composed of a total of 865 items, which as mentioned, correspond to the total number of projects selected to be part of the budgets. These represent 10.66% of the total number of proposals submitted that were considered feasible.

3. Results

3.1. Set of rules governing the process

As you can see on the Madrid City Council website, participatory budgets are “democratic processes through which residents can decide directly as to where a part of the municipal budget will be allocated”. To this end, over the last three years, the City Council has allocated 260 million Euros (60m in 2016, and 100m in 2017 and 2018), a figure that is between 1.3% and 2% of the annual budget”.

Annually, the amount allocated to this initiative is divided into two parts: one for proposals located in a given district (36 million in 2016, 70 million in 2017 and 2018), and another for initiatives covering the entire municipality (24 million in 2016, 30 million in 2017 and 2018). The amount allocated to each district is directly proportional to the population of each district, and inversely proportional to the per capita income of each district. The development of this initiative is divided into four phases: collection of proposals, support for proposals, feasibility reports, and final vote. At the end of the process, the City Council makes a commitment to include the most-voted proposals in the municipal budgets for the next fiscal year.