Challenges and Issues of Initiative Budgeting Development

The article examines current issues in initiative budgeting (IB) development in the Russian Federation on the basis of empirical data accumulated during the monitoring of IB development since 2015. The methodology for organizing monitoring and analysis of the received data, developed at the Initiative Budgeting Center of the Financial Research Institute of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, makes it possible to assess the development dynamics by key indicators, to identify trends, and to formulate current problems in IB development in the Russian Federation. The accumulated information on initiative budgeting provides ample opportunities for constructing analytical variables calculated through aggregation of the data from the primary mass of information. The article outlines approaches to examining various forms of initiative budgeting, and provides some results of a comparative analysis of various types of practices used in the Russian Federation’s regions to involve citizens in budgetary decisions. One of the challenges in the monitoring organization is the need for regular adjustments of the measurement procedure considering current changes in legislative regulations and the practices of initiative budgeting implementation. As part of the monitoring, a separate study area of municipal IB practices is beginning to take shape. The authors review documents that legitimize IB issues in the Russian Federation and in the Russian regions, in particular, presenting the results of an analysis of state programs in the Russian regions. The article summarizes the current agenda and outlines the development of institutional support for initiative budgeting. The conclusions formulated by the authors include a wide range of proposals for improving the initiative budgeting programs and practices in the Russian regions and the Russian Federation as a whole.