ABSTRACT
Unlike the participatory budgeting processes in Chicago and St. Louis, which are specific to wards, the process in Boston is city-wide and focuses strictly on youth. The City of Boston, Massachusetts, had an estimated population of 645,966 in 2013. The city structure includes four at-large councilors and nine councilors elected by district. In April 2013, under the direction of former Mayor Thomas Menino, the city committed $1 million of its capital improvement budget to the participatory budgeting process. The intent of the city-wide participatory budgeting initiative was to engage young people in government, specifically in the allocation of and decision-making about the budget (City of Boston 2013; Gordon, Osgood, Jr., and Boden 2016).
