Local Government
18
Large Cities
2
Capital Cities
0
Regional or State Governments
0
National Government
0
Other Institutions
0
Local Government
18
Large Cities
2
Capital Cities
0
Regional or State Governments
0
National Government
0
Other Institutions
0
Community
Capital
Stockholm
Population
10 183 170
Language
Swedish
Currency
Swedish Krona
Indexes
Democracy
3
Full Democracy
Democracy
Democracy
3
Full Democracy
Democracy
Corruption Perception
3/180
Corruption Perception
Corruption Perception
3/180
Corruption Perception
Human Development
7
Very High
Human Development
Human Development
7
Very High
Human Development
World Happiness
7/156
World Happiness
World Happiness
7/156
World Happiness
Outstanding Innovation
In 2008 SALAR started to work with P.B and it has been developed mostly in large cities such as Stockholm and Gothenburg, in deprived districts and cities close to them. In this sense, 5 years ago we started a network and sometime after small rural cities join us. Both, the large cities deprived areas and rural cities shared the same motivation to work with us.
They felt that the municipality didn’t care about their problems or needs and that they only focused on the development and improvement of urban areas. One of the conclusions is that P.B in Sweden has been more successful in rural areas, this could be because participants trust more in the municipality, politicians and professionals.
Nowadays, we have founded a new network that is mostly integrated by small rural municipalities. Also, the politicians in these municipalities are much interested in the project, are aware of the need to empower citizens and implicated them into the decision-making processes and to create a deeper dialogue with the participants. Participatory Budgeting is conceived as a way to legitimize the administration.
Principal Tendencies Detected
For the past 10 years it has been very difficult to get the municipalities attracted to Participatory Budgeting experiences, but after the last elections there is a stronger interested, for example: there has been a growth of Participatory Budgeting initiatives developing in small rural municipalities. In this sense, we can see that there are political parties that feel the need to come closer to the citizens as one way to work against nationalistic trends.
