Participatory budget formation through the web

Abstract. We describe a web-based system to support groups in elabo-rating participatory budgets. Rather than using physical meetings with voting mechanisms, we promote virtual meetings with explicit preference elicitation, guided negotiations and, only if consensus is not reached, voting. 1 Basic Concepts in Participatory Budget Formation Participatory budgets constitute an attempt to allow citizens to have a word and aid in deciding and approving how public budgets, mainly in municipalities, are spent, whether (and how much) in transportation, culture, education, urban development, health,... They constitute a budget allocation model based on di-alogue and citizen participation, which diverges from the current predominant representative model in which citizens choose representatives for four years, with practically no other direct opportunity to influence council policies. In a sense, participatory budgets are transforming the idea of a represen-tative democracy, in which the preferences of the citizens are considered just at the moment of elections, through voting, to move closer to a participatory democracy, based on direct participation and discussion of issues. In words of Souza, see [10]: Participatory budgets constitute a universal, direct and volunteer kind of democracy which gives population the opportunity of discussing about budgets and public policy, making relevant decisions. Citizens not only vote, but also get involved. Among many potential benefits of participatory budgets, we would include: – Legitimation – Approaching decisions to citizens – Public decisions made publicly – Mitigation of alienation and apath