"A Dynamic Model of Citizen Preference Revelation".

• Author: Robbins, Mark D.
• Position: Budgeting - Proposes use of dynamic tax price survey to help citizens decide how to fund budgets - Abstract

Mark D. Robbins and Bill Simonsen

Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management, Fall 2002, pp. 445-461.

At its most basic level, citizen participation involves the selection of representatives through voting. Mere voting, however, is not enough to ensure that citizen interests are acted upon. Indeed, public managers and elected officials usually decide on their own the amount of public goods (services) to be provided and how much citizens will be asked to pay for them. Although this type of unilateral decision making may be appropriate when the stakes are small, it is generally agreed that public officials should seek out the preferences of stakeholders when the stakes are high, as is the case with resource allocation decisions. The most common techniques for involving citizens in public budgeting--public hearings and citizen advisory committees--are insufficient because they represent the preferences of a select group of motivated participants, not the public at large. Although surveys can be representative of citizen preferences, most fall short for the purpose of informing resource...