Periodic Reporting for period 2 - DEMOTEC (DEMOTEC - Democratising Territorial Cohesion: Experimenting with deliberative citizen engagement and participatory budgeting in European regional and urban policies)
Reporting period: 2022-03-01 to 2024-07-31
The DEMOTEC project was conceived in response to growing political dissatisfaction, declining trust in democratic institutions, and increasing polarization across the European Union. Amidst a backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated restrictions, the project identified a widening gap between citizens and policymakers, expressed as declining engagement in democratic processes and disconnection from municipal policy-making.
This challenge is critical for fostering democratic resilience and ensuring citizens feel empowered to participate in shaping their communities. By promoting Participatory Budgeting (PB), a democratic innovation allowing citizens a direct say in public budget allocations, the project sought to rebuild trust, encourage civic engagement, and enhance the legitimacy of municipal governance.
The DEMOTEC project aimed to explore whether PB could serve as a catalyst for democratic renewal at the local level. Its objectives included:
Analyzing Citizen Engagement: Understanding the determinants and barriers to effective engagement in PB across diverse contexts.
Media Representation: Examining how PB is framed in traditional and social media and assessing the role of journalists in promoting democratic innovations.
Practical Implementation: Conducting experimental PB pilots in seven European cities and supporting real-world PB implementations to test various engagement methods.
Developing Effective Methods: Identifying best practices for designing inclusive and impactful PB processes.
Knowledge Sharing: Facilitating exchange among stakeholders to strengthen democratic practices across regions.
Policy Recommendations: Synthesizing findings into accessible tools and guidelines for policymakers and practitioners.
Awareness Campaigns: Raising public awareness about PB and disseminating project outcomes to citizens, stakeholders, and academic audiences.
Conclusions of the Action
DEMOTEC demonstrated that PB has potential to enhance citizen engagement and bridge the gap between the public and policymakers. The project emphasised the importance of context-specific PB designs, media strategies, and participatory tools. It highlighted that citizen satisfaction and trust could be bolstered through transparent, inclusive, and deliberative democratic practices. However, the project’s results additionally point to a segment of the population largely unwilling to consider citizens as potential decision-makers.
While challenges such as limited media coverage and institutional constraints persist, the project’s outputs, including a PB handbook and policy recommendations, provide a robust foundation for scaling PB across Europe. The initiative reinforced the role of PB in fostering democratic innovation, empowering communities, and promoting social cohesion.
This challenge is critical for fostering democratic resilience and ensuring citizens feel empowered to participate in shaping their communities. By promoting Participatory Budgeting (PB), a democratic innovation allowing citizens a direct say in public budget allocations, the project sought to rebuild trust, encourage civic engagement, and enhance the legitimacy of municipal governance.
The DEMOTEC project aimed to explore whether PB could serve as a catalyst for democratic renewal at the local level. Its objectives included:
Analyzing Citizen Engagement: Understanding the determinants and barriers to effective engagement in PB across diverse contexts.
Media Representation: Examining how PB is framed in traditional and social media and assessing the role of journalists in promoting democratic innovations.
Practical Implementation: Conducting experimental PB pilots in seven European cities and supporting real-world PB implementations to test various engagement methods.
Developing Effective Methods: Identifying best practices for designing inclusive and impactful PB processes.
Knowledge Sharing: Facilitating exchange among stakeholders to strengthen democratic practices across regions.
Policy Recommendations: Synthesizing findings into accessible tools and guidelines for policymakers and practitioners.
Awareness Campaigns: Raising public awareness about PB and disseminating project outcomes to citizens, stakeholders, and academic audiences.
Conclusions of the Action
DEMOTEC demonstrated that PB has potential to enhance citizen engagement and bridge the gap between the public and policymakers. The project emphasised the importance of context-specific PB designs, media strategies, and participatory tools. It highlighted that citizen satisfaction and trust could be bolstered through transparent, inclusive, and deliberative democratic practices. However, the project’s results additionally point to a segment of the population largely unwilling to consider citizens as potential decision-makers.
While challenges such as limited media coverage and institutional constraints persist, the project’s outputs, including a PB handbook and policy recommendations, provide a robust foundation for scaling PB across Europe. The initiative reinforced the role of PB in fostering democratic innovation, empowering communities, and promoting social cohesion.
From the project’s initiation in March 2021 to its conclusion in July 2024, DEMOTEC undertook extensive activities aligned with its overarching objective of fostering democratic renewal through Participatory Budgeting (PB).
Key actions included:
• Research in democratic innovations
Conducted a ten-country representative survey to assess citizens’ awareness, attitudes, and participation in PB and other democratic innovations.
Analyzed over 42,000 news media articles and 300,000 social media mentions related to PB to understand public discourse and media framing.
Carried out qualitative interviews and surveys with journalists to evaluate their attitudes towards PB and its coverage.
• Participatory Budgeting Implementation:
Designed, conducted and analysed different forms of PB in an experimental scenario in seven cities across Europe (Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, UK).
Collaborated with municipal authorities to implement “real-world” PB cycles, tailored to local contexts and citizen needs.
• Capacity Building through training sessions for municipal officials and public events directed at policy makers.
The project consolidated findings into actionable policy recommendations and a PB handbook for policymakers, practitioners, and civil society organisations.
• Dissemination and Communication: A number of different multimedia resources were produced, including videos, infographics, and reports, to raise awareness about PB.
Main Results Achieved:
Citizen Engagement Insights: Identified significant gaps in public awareness of PB but demonstrated a willingness among citizens to engage if opportunities are provided.
Revealed demographic predictors of participation, including age, institutional trust, and interest in politics.
Demonstrated that well-designed PB processes can significantly enhance citizen satisfaction with the process.
Media and Public Discourse: Highlighted limited but growing media interest in PB, with a need for more differentiated and substantive coverage.
Identified barriers to journalistic promotion of PB, such as resource constraints and perceived lack of audience interest.
• Policy and Practice Contributions: Developed an eight-step roadmap and comprehensive PB handbook to guide municipalities in adopting PB.
• Synthesised findings into actionable recommendations for local, national, and EU policymakers.
Exploitation and Dissemination of Results
• The PB handbook and policy recommendations are freely accessible, enabling widespread adoption and adaptation.
• Training materials and methodologies were shared with participating municipalities and stakeholders, fostering long-term capacity-building.
• Results were disseminated through academic publications, media appearances, and policy forums, amplifying impact across diverse audiences.
Potential Future Exploitation
• Municipalities can leverage the PB handbook and lessons learned to design inclusive and effective participatory processes.
• Researchers and policymakers can utilize the project’s datasets, which will be publicly available, to advance studies on democratic innovations.
Key actions included:
• Research in democratic innovations
Conducted a ten-country representative survey to assess citizens’ awareness, attitudes, and participation in PB and other democratic innovations.
Analyzed over 42,000 news media articles and 300,000 social media mentions related to PB to understand public discourse and media framing.
Carried out qualitative interviews and surveys with journalists to evaluate their attitudes towards PB and its coverage.
• Participatory Budgeting Implementation:
Designed, conducted and analysed different forms of PB in an experimental scenario in seven cities across Europe (Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, UK).
Collaborated with municipal authorities to implement “real-world” PB cycles, tailored to local contexts and citizen needs.
• Capacity Building through training sessions for municipal officials and public events directed at policy makers.
The project consolidated findings into actionable policy recommendations and a PB handbook for policymakers, practitioners, and civil society organisations.
• Dissemination and Communication: A number of different multimedia resources were produced, including videos, infographics, and reports, to raise awareness about PB.
Main Results Achieved:
Citizen Engagement Insights: Identified significant gaps in public awareness of PB but demonstrated a willingness among citizens to engage if opportunities are provided.
Revealed demographic predictors of participation, including age, institutional trust, and interest in politics.
Demonstrated that well-designed PB processes can significantly enhance citizen satisfaction with the process.
Media and Public Discourse: Highlighted limited but growing media interest in PB, with a need for more differentiated and substantive coverage.
Identified barriers to journalistic promotion of PB, such as resource constraints and perceived lack of audience interest.
• Policy and Practice Contributions: Developed an eight-step roadmap and comprehensive PB handbook to guide municipalities in adopting PB.
• Synthesised findings into actionable recommendations for local, national, and EU policymakers.
Exploitation and Dissemination of Results
• The PB handbook and policy recommendations are freely accessible, enabling widespread adoption and adaptation.
• Training materials and methodologies were shared with participating municipalities and stakeholders, fostering long-term capacity-building.
• Results were disseminated through academic publications, media appearances, and policy forums, amplifying impact across diverse audiences.
Potential Future Exploitation
• Municipalities can leverage the PB handbook and lessons learned to design inclusive and effective participatory processes.
• Researchers and policymakers can utilize the project’s datasets, which will be publicly available, to advance studies on democratic innovations.
The DEMOTEC project significantly advanced the understanding and application of Participatory Budgeting (PB) as a tool for democratic renewal. Key contributions include:
Innovative Research Design: A ten-country survey exploring public attitudes toward PB and democratic innovations provided novel insights into cross-cultural differences and determinants of citizen engagement.
Extensive analysis of media and public discourse surrounding PB in nine languages, combining quantitative and qualitative methods to understand trends and framing.
Seminal work exploring journalists’ perception of PB through quantitative and qualitative methods in seven countries.
Practical Implementation and Experimentation: Piloted PB in seven diverse European contexts, testing various deliberative configurations to identify the impacts of different designs.
Policy and Media Engagement: Developed strategies to address gaps in media representation and journalist engagement with democratic innovations.
Long-Term Policy Impacts
Institutionalization of PB: Establishing PB as a standard practice in local governance can embed participatory democracy into institutional frameworks. The project’s findings work toward a larger effort to scale PB across different local and regional authorities.
EU Cohesion Policy: By aligning PB with EU Cohesion Policy principles, the project offers pathways to modernise and democratise regional development processes.
Innovative Research Design: A ten-country survey exploring public attitudes toward PB and democratic innovations provided novel insights into cross-cultural differences and determinants of citizen engagement.
Extensive analysis of media and public discourse surrounding PB in nine languages, combining quantitative and qualitative methods to understand trends and framing.
Seminal work exploring journalists’ perception of PB through quantitative and qualitative methods in seven countries.
Practical Implementation and Experimentation: Piloted PB in seven diverse European contexts, testing various deliberative configurations to identify the impacts of different designs.
Policy and Media Engagement: Developed strategies to address gaps in media representation and journalist engagement with democratic innovations.
Long-Term Policy Impacts
Institutionalization of PB: Establishing PB as a standard practice in local governance can embed participatory democracy into institutional frameworks. The project’s findings work toward a larger effort to scale PB across different local and regional authorities.
EU Cohesion Policy: By aligning PB with EU Cohesion Policy principles, the project offers pathways to modernise and democratise regional development processes.