Citizens Initiative Participation’s Development in the St. Petersburg Budget Process (the Case the project "Your Budget")

The research «Citizens initiative participation’s development in the St. Petersburg budget process (the case of "Your budget" project)» is devoted to the study of the initiative budgeting practice as a tool for creating and strengthening the culture of civic participation. There is considered the theoretical basis of civic engagement, and there are described the key features of public participation in the Russian Federation. The paper also presents the world experience of initiative budgeting programs, as well as similar Russian practices, their characteristics, basic rules and effects of their functioning. The experience of social and political activity of initiative budgeting programs participants is considered on the example of the project "Your budget". Based on the results of the work, it is concluded that there is no correlation between socio-demographic indicators and the features characterizing a person’s civil participation experience. It is determined that initiative budgeting programs mainly involve people who do not have or have little experience of civic engagement, who vote in elections and plan to continue this practice, which together with the social and institutional effects of implementing such projects can positively affect the culture of civic participation. Keywords: civic culture, public participation, initiative budgeting, budgetary expenditures efficiency.