Participatory budgeting – case study of the city of Szczecin

A growing awareness of civic participation resulted in the fact that, at the turn of the 20th and 21st century, local authorities of the world’s countries decided to hand over some social tools to citizens. This article presents one of the most important participatory tools – participatory budgeting. A detailed analysis of the process was made on the example of the City of Szczecin, including the provisions of the Szczecin Participatory Budgeting Regulations, in force since 2019. The changes, which were introduced as a result of legal regulations of the legislator, made it necessary to update the rules of conducting this procedure in Szczecin. Three main elements on which participatory budgeting should be based are identified and, on this basis, the provisions of the Szczecin Participatory Budgeting Regulations are analysed. An attempt has been made to compare and identify significant differences between the usual way of conducting public consultations and the participatory budgeting process. The deliberations close with an assessment of the direction and manner of introducing changes in participatory budgeting in Szczecin.