Open AccessParticipation of Citizens in Public Financial Decision-Making in Serbia
Author(s) -
Mirela Trtovac Šabović,
Miloš Milosavljević,
Sladjana Benkovic
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
slovak journal of political sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.121
H-Index - 1
ISSN - 1335-9096
DOI - 10.34135/sjps.210205
Subject(s) - referendum , politics , voting , citizen journalism , participatory budgeting , decision making , public relations , political science , public administration , process (computing) , campaign finance , business , public economics , economics , marketing , democracy , purchasing , law , computer science , operating system
Participation in the local public finance decision-making process in Serbia is not a new concept as it was implemented even during the ‘Titoistic’ period. However, direct participation is still in an infant phase altogether with the low interest of citizens in participating in local financial decision-making procedures. The aim of this paper is to explain the main types of civic participation in the local financial decision-making process (i.e., referendum voting on self-imposed contribution, participatory budgeting, and civic crowdfunding) and to focus on the main factors that lead to a low participation of citizens in such processes. Additionally, the article analyses how these factors affect general mistrust in politics and society. For this purpose, a total of N=421 citizens were interviewed. Using the principal component analysis, the following three main components for low participation were defined: 1) lack of knowledge, 2) lack of interest, and 3) lack of political will. Thereafter, using the regression analysis, the study confirmed that the first two components are statistically significant predictors for mistrust in politics and society.