新作坊 Humanity Innovation and Social Practice

The emergence of Taiwan’s participatory budgeting was related to the initiatives of “openness and transparency” and “citizen participation” advocated by the Sunflower Movement. When participatory budgeting was promoted in Taiwan, it faced unprecedented challenges between theory and practice. On the one hand, advocators expect to spread the idea of participatory democracy through participatory budgeting. On the other hand, all participants in participatory budgeting are viewed as active citizens who are key to facilitating further social change and democratic consolidation. Therefore, it is necessary to examine the impediment to conducting participatory budgeting including administrators’ and councilmen’s understanding of and attitudes towards it. The purpose of this study is to tackle the issues mentioned above and profound reflections from the perspective of social practices through a case study of a participatory budgeting project in Taichung City. This article illustrates the public sector needs sufficient practical training to gain knowledge and confidence in participatory budgeting. To implement participatory budgeting efficiently and effectively, the public sector needs to become more open and transparent. Only by doing so, the model of local participatory democracy can be expected to be developed and consolidated.