Do Citizens Trust Electronic Participatory Budgeting? Public Expression in Online Forums as an Evaluation Method in Belo Horizonte

This article provides a comparative study of citizen comments on the Electronic Participatory Budgeting (e-PB) online forums in Belo Horizonte (Brazil) in 2008 and 2011. The forums allow citizens to deliberate on public projects suggested by the city hall and to vote on which ones they think should be carried out. We analyzed all messages sent to the forums (N = 2,370) in order to investigate citizen feelings toward the initiative, use of narratives and testimonies, perception of e-PB political effectiveness and representation and whether uses changed from one edition to the next. The results indicate a significant change, from an environment of positive citizen evaluation in 2008 to a negative one in 2011, suggesting a loss of trust in the process. In 2011, participants expressed frustration over the lack of options, dissatisfaction that work promised in 2008 was not carried out, and lack of city hall responses in general. These findings demonstrate the importance of analyzing citizen perceptions and feelings when evaluating online channels and e-participation initiatives set up by local governments, and the necessity for governments to ensure interaction and feedback, in order to sustain citizen engagement and trust.