Serving Multiple Masters? Public Managers’ Role Perceptions in Participatory Budgeting
Open accessAbstract
Participatory budgeting is fast becoming a popular form of public participation. Public managers play an important role in organizing and implementing participatory budgeting. Their role perceptions affect whether they use their discretion to limit or increase residents’ say in participatory processes. However, we know little about public managers’ role perceptions in participatory budgeting. In this study, we develop a typology of public managers’ role perceptions in participatory budgeting using a Q-methodological analysis of public managers in seven municipal participatory budgeting projects in Belgium. We find evidence for four distinct perspectives: a managerial, citizen-centered, technocratic, and skeptical perspective.
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Public managers overseeing participatory budgeting programs who are more citizen-centric can enhance the effectiveness of participatory budgeting.
“For example, some public managers overseeing PB programs are more”
From Participatory Budgeting for Social Equity: A Comparative Analysis (2025) · cites this paper as Migchelbrink and Walle 2022
A manager's background, leadership, professionalism, and perceptions of participatory budgeting can influence its success.
“Similarly, multiple studies have shown that a manager's background, leadership, professionalism, and perceptions of PB can influence its success (Bartocci et al. 2023;Manes-Rossi et al. 2023;Migchelbrink and Walle 2022;Shybalkina 2022).”
From Participatory Budgeting for Social Equity: A Comparative Analysis (2025) · cites this paper as Migchelbrink and Walle 2022
Prior research on participatory budgeting demonstrates that planning, implementation, managerial characteristics, and political support can affect access to marginalized groups, the fairness of the process, the quality of the participatory budgeting program, and outcomes.
“Overall, prior research on PB demonstrates that planning, implementation, managerial characteristics, and political support can affect access to marginalized groups, the fairness of the process, the quality of the PB program, and outcomes (Afonso 2017;Johnson et al. 2021;Migchelbrink and Walle 2022;Shybalkina 2022;Su 2018).”
From Participatory Budgeting for Social Equity: A Comparative Analysis (2025) · cites this paper as Migchelbrink and Walle 2022
Cites
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The question of participation: Toward Authentic public participation in public administration
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Kim, S., & Schachter, H. L. (2013) · Public Performance & Management Review · doi:10.2753/pmr1530-9576360304 · Cited by 75 · cited 1× · see citing works
“…& Ebdon, 2005; Miller et al., 2019; Rowe, 2013; Sintomer et al., 2008), factors that affect the success of participatory budgeting (Barbera et al., 2016; Guo & Neshkova, 2013; Kim & Schachter, 2013), and the institutional logics on which participatory budgeting is based (Bartocci et al., 2019).”
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Participatory Budgeting for Social Equity: A Comparative Analysis
Taylor, C. R., Afshan, S., & Lawrence, K. L. (2025) · Public Administration · doi:10.1111/padm.13055 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
- Authors
- Migchelbrink, K., & Van de Walle, S.
- Affiliations
- Erasmus University Rotterdam (NL)
- KU Leuven, Belgium
- Corresponding author
- Migchelbrink, Koen
- ORCID
- Migchelbrink, Koen
- Venue
- Administration & Society
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2021-07-29
- Volume
- 54
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 339-365
- ISSN
- 0095-3997 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-3039
- OpenAlex
- W3189890046
- Cited by
- 16
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 2
- FWCI
- 3.65
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- pure.eur.nl
- Locations
- Administration & Society (publishedVersion)
- EUR Research Repository (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- RePub (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Lirias (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- European Commission (726755)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Public Administration › Public Policy and Administration Research
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Political Theory and Democracy
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Public Administration and Political Analysis
- Keywords
- participatory budgeting, public managers, role perception, citizen participation, municipal government, managerial discretion, Q methodology
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