Initiative budgeting is a global trend that is being
implemented in many countries of the world. The popularity and
prevalence of thisform of citizen participation in deciding for what
purposes it is better to direct budget money is explained quite simply: budgeting is an effective way of involving residents in local
self-governance and territory improvement. It is generally believed
that this mechanism will reduce distrust between the government
and the population and will promote effective cooperation. This
article presents the theoretical approaches of domestic researchers
to the phenomenon of initiative budgeting, analyzes the practical
experience of implementing initiative budgeting in St. Petersburg.
The authors analyze the budget of St. Petersburg, present the data of
an empirical, comparative study on the practices of implementing
participatory budgeting in St. Petersburg and major European cities: Lisbon, Madrid and Paris. It is concluded that, despite the similarity between St. Petersburg and these cities in many respects,
St. Petersburg however, St Petersburg clearly lags behind these cities in implementing and developing participatory budgeting practices. In particular, in St. Petersburg less money is allocated overall
and per capita than in other European cities and there is a lower
percentage of overall participation and activity of the residents as
a whole. Despite the large economic potential of St. Petersburg and
a fairly large population of the city, as well assignificant migration
flows that are characteristic of the city, in fact, the amounts allocated forthe implementation of participatory budgeting are several
times less than in the cities cited in the study. It is concluded that
the city authorities preferto distribute fundstop-down and are very
cautious and distrustful of grassroots activism