What Succeeds and What Fails in Participatory Budgeting? Lessons from Wałbrzych (Poland)

Participatory budgeting is a popular democratic innovation used for engaging citizens in public decision-making, enabling meaningful participation in the allocation of public funding. Dating back to the 1980s it gained a momentum in the beginning of 21st century, soon becoming a mainstream tool for local governance in many parts of the world. Today the concept seems to lose its initial impetus, mainly due to the decreasing number of submitted projects and declining voter turnout. This paper presents a case study conducted in Wałbrzych (Poland) — a city having a continuous participatory budgeting programme since 2013/2014. A research workshop organised for municipality representatives in 2023 enabled an in-depth analysis of the recent dynamics of participatory processes in the city. The results offer an indicative diagnosis of the challenges faced by the city followed by the search for possible solutions. They also enable a critical review of the state of the art regarding the issues experienced in implementing participatory budgeting worldwide.