Knowledge
Citizens’ budget
A citizens’ budget is a fixed sum of money that residents help decide how to spend — often for projects in a neighbourhood or district.
With a citizens’ budget, a municipality provides a fixed sum that residents may use for concrete projects: submit proposals, vote, implement. Often the budget is limited to a neighbourhood or theme and deliberately kept manageable so the impact is directly visible.
Citizens’ budget and participatory budgeting are often used interchangeably but emphasise different things: the citizens’ budget usually denotes the concrete, fixed pot for projects, while participatory budgeting refers to the broader process of co-deciding the municipal budget.
Typical features
- A fixed, clearly named amount
- Often limited to a neighbourhood or theme
- Direct voting on concrete projects
- Quickly visible results
With MyIdeas a citizens’ budget runs digitally: collect project ideas, vote and use the public roadmap to show what gets implemented.
Get started