Real Money, Real Power: Participatory Budgeting in Romania and the Republic of Moldova

Participatory budgeting (PB) is increasingly used in new and old democracies. Although the research on PB provides extensive empirical evidence about how these procedures work, there are still important lacunas to fill with regard to the context of post-communism. As such, it is unclear if PB takes similar forms as in the documented cases and what is the role of political parties in these procedures. This paper seeks to fill this void in the literature by analyzing how political parties in two post-communist countries – Romania and the Republic of Moldova, selected on the basis of their differences in terms of transition and institutional practices – approach the PB in two distinct localities. The PB took place only at local level, with many initiatives being implemented with regard to the formulation and decision making on urban policies and initiatives. This paper seeks to understand whether political parties make instrumental use of PB for their own purposes or they are oriented towards policy adoption through inclusiveness.