Participative budgeting is a democratic mechanism, through which citizens can actively participate. It was designed to eliminate poverty in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Now it is one of the most effective forms of direct democracy. In the Republic of Slovenia, it was initially introduced in the Municipality of Maribor.
The thesis focuses on participatory budgeting and its implementation in the Municipality of Koper. The core objective of the thesis is to determine whether the implementation of participatory budgeting in the Municipality of Koper in 2020 was successful, which is done by analysing it and comparing participatory budgeting in other Slovenian municipalities. The purpose of the thesis is to present participatory budgeting and compare its implementation in different Slovenian municipalities, both of which are based on a literature review. In the first part of the thesis, participatory budgeting, its history, introduction in the Republic of Slovenia and its legal basis are defined through the descriptive method, and a SWOT analysis is added too. Theoretical starting points are used in the empirical part of the paper where the example of the analysis of participatory budgeting in the Municipality of Koper is studied to establish whether the implementation of participatory budgeting was carried out successfully in the Municipality of Koper in 2002. This is also done by comparing participatory budgeting in other Slovenian municipalities.
The thesis contributes new knowledge about participatory budgeting, examples of good practices and positive factors that contribute to the successful implementation of participatory budgeting. Participatory budgeting is a fairly new practice in the Republic of Slovenia, so the findings of this thesis can be used to facilitate the introduction and implementation of participatory budgeting in Slovenian municipalities.
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