Citizen-Based Participatory Budget System (general idea for now, we have a few ideas for data processing, but don’t know which one to choose)

Problem Statement

Participatory budgeting (PB) empowers citizens to influence how public funds are allocated. However, challenges persist in ensuring fairness, transparency, and effective data utilization within these processes. Traditional methods may not adequately capture diverse community needs or leverage data-driven insights for optimal decision-making.​

Data Acquisition

Sources of Data:

  • Historical PB election data from platforms like Pabulib, encompassing over 650 Polish PB elections.

  • Open budget data from government portals and initiatives like Open Spending.

  • Survey responses and feedback collected via mobile apps, social media, and CRM systems.​

Data Collection Methods:

  • Utilize tools such as Pabutools for parsing and organizing PB datasets.

  • Conduct mobile surveys and community outreach to gather qualitative data on citizen preferences and sentiments.​

Data Processing and Analysis

Analytical Tools and Techniques:

  • Employ Pabustats to simulate outcomes under various PB rules (e.g., Method of Equal Shares vs. Utilitarian Greedy) to assess fairness and utility.

  • Apply machine learning models to learn and generate aggregation rules that balance social welfare and representation.

  • Use natural language processing (NLP) to analyze public sentiment from discussion forums and survey responses.

  • Implement clustering or regression models to identify features in PB software that correlate with higher participation rates.​

https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.11035

Data Presentation

Visualization and Engagement Strategies:

  • Develop interactive dashboards and visualizations (e.g., budget allocation maps, cost-benefit charts) to enhance transparency.

  • Use platforms like Open Spending to create accessible and engaging representations of budget data.

  • Conduct A/B testing with different ballot formats (e.g., approval vs. score voting) to determine impacts on voter satisfaction and project diversity.

  • Leverage mobile applications and social media channels to disseminate information and gather real-time feedback from citizens.​

https://www.ijcai.org/proceedings/2023/0297.pdf

References

  1. P. Faliszewski et al., “Participatory Budgeting: Data, Tools, and Analysis,” arXiv preprint arXiv:2305.11035, 2023. arXiv​arXiv+3Google Scholar+3comsoc-community.org+3

  2. R. Fairstein et al., “Learning Aggregation Rules in Participatory Budgeting: A Data-Driven Approach,” arXiv preprint arXiv:2412.01864, 2024. https://arxiv.org/pdf/2412.01864

  3. H. L. Schachter, “Citizen Participation in the Budget Process and Local Government Accountability: Case Studies of Organizational Learning from the United States and South Korea,” ResearchGate, 2023.
    https://www.redalyc.org/journal/2352/235272781008/html/

Consul government citizen based budget participatory details:
4. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjpvoL85dyMAxXca_UHHYQvHNsQFnoECBoQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fconsulproject.nl%2Fassets%2Fdocuments%2Fconsul_dossier_nl.pdf&usg=AOvVaw1CBwzFMjlkfd8aJX8-Xnac&opi=89978449
5. https://consuldemocracy.org
6. https://decide.madrid.es