Assessing the impact of Dutch participatory budgeting processes on the political attitudes of citizens in the broader public: empirical evidence from two cases in Amsterdam and one in Enschede

Established democracies arguably face a legitimacy crisis with public trust in its political institutions in decline. In an effort to turn the tide, governments embrace participatory budgeting processes where residents decide on how to spend public budgets. But whilst there is evidence suggesting that such processes positively affect the political attitudes of its participants, this effect has rarely been established for the non-participating citizens in the maxi-public. This paper therefore adds to the literature by testing the expectation that participatory budgeting processes could have a positive effect on the external political efficacy and political trust levels of citizens in the broader public. For this, we use two-wave panel data before and after three cases of participatory budgeting in Amsterdam East, Amsterdam South and Enschede. This paper is furthermore distinctive in also using the panel data to shed light on the mechanisms that explain this direct relationship. Here, we argue that the mechanisms of perceived procedural influence, perceived procedural fairness explain the direct relationships tested in this paper. Taken together, this paper provides valuable insights on how citizens in the broader public evaluate participatory budgeting processes and to what extent and why such processes hold the potential to address some of democracies' ills.