Fairness in Participatory Decision-making: the relationship between participation and deliberation in UK participatory budgeting processes

Abstract

Through participatory budgeting programmes in the UK, we can understand something of what people value and understand about democracy at a grassroots level. The implementation of deliberative mechanisms in particular reveals how community members, council officers and local councillors understand fair decision-making, and thus the basis of democratic legitimacy. This paper argues that, although there is confusion over issues of representation, and at times an arguably problematic emphasis on fair outcome rather than fair process, the practice of participatory budgeting offers fruitful opportunities for thinking differently about democratic process in the UK, in particular in facilitating a view of democracy as a process rather than an asset: something we do rather than something we have. This paper is not intended primarily as a contribution to the theoretical discussion. Rather it is about how concepts are employed at a very grassroots level, and thus the nature of public assumptions about and experiences of democracy.