CitizenPB: Kick-Off

What

On February 20 and 21, we will launch our WWTF-funded project, “Citizen-Centered Democratic Innovation: Understanding Citizen Preferences for Participatory Budgeting Algorithms,” with a small workshop featuring several esteemed international guests. As part of the workshop, we will have public tutorials and a keynote lecture by Yves Sintomer, a leading global expert on participatory budgeting.

Where & When

The public part of the workshop will take place on February 20, 13:00 – 17:00 at the Zemanek lecture hall of TU Wien, Favoritenstraße 9-11, 1040 Wien.

Program

13:00-13:30
Opening Remarks

13:30-14:30 Tutorial
Methodologies for studying citizens’ views
Carolina Plescia, University of Vienna

Abstract

This tutorial focuses on methodologies for studying citizens’ views and preferences. In particular, we will explore the use of surveys as a primary tool for gathering data on public opinion and discuss best practices for survey design including experiments, sampling strategies, and data analysis and interpretation. By the end of this tutorial, participants will have a solid understanding of how to effectively study citizen perspectives in the digital age.

15:00-16:00 Tutorial
Proportionality in Participatory Budgeting
Jan Maly, WU Wien

Abstract

In many contexts, the central requirement for a voting rule is that it chooses outcome represents the electorate’s preferences in a proportional manner. While proportionality is well understood in traditional parliamentary elections, it is not immediately clear what it means without a rigid party structure. However, recent advances in computational social choice theory have allowed us to develop a new and deeper understanding of fairness and proportionality in more complex elections, for example the voting stage of a participatory budgeting process, that do not have explicitly defined parties.

In this tutorial, I will give an accessible introduction to the literature on proportionality in participatory budgeting, presenting some mathematical axioms that have been developed to formally capture the intuitive idea of proportionality and examine some voting rules designed to provide proportional outcomes.

16:00-17:00 Keynote
Deliberating, building consensus, aggregating, and voting in participatory budgeting and participatory democracy. A political science perspective
Yves Sintomer, University of Paris 8

Abstract

Participatory budgeting (PB) has probably been the most successful democratic innovation in the last three decades. Invented in Brazil, it has spread all over the world. Its political and social impacts have been widely discussed, but the procedures allowing to reach a decision in the PB context have not really been the object of a synthetic analysis. In fact, they are quite diverse. From a political science perspective, what can we expect from the development of various tools invented by computer scientist, including AI? Will they foster and/or modify the way of deliberating, building consensus, aggregating, and voting in participatory budgeting and participatory democracy? How could they influence the balance between these elements? Could they increase the wisdom of the many?