In the past three or four decades, public finance theorists and practitioners have struggled to identify and design institutional arrangements to help close the gap between the preferences of voters and the mix of public services actually delivered. Participatory budgeting is potentially a good approach.

This book presents an authoritative guide to the principles and practice of participatory budgeting, providing a careful analysis of the potentials of participatory budgeting in strengthening inclusive and accountable governance as well as risks associated with interest group capture of participatory processes. For interested policy makers and practitioners, the book presents the 'nuts and bolts' of participatory budgeting. It provides a regional survey of such practices worldwide and draws lessons from seven individual country case studies. A CD-ROM included with the book contains these seven country case studies on Bangladesh, India, the Philippines, Russia, South Africa, Thailand and the Ukraine.