ABSTRACT
Public value depends on the active participation of civil society, and yet this element has largely been overlooked in the analysis of value creation, not least in the study of developing countries. This chapter applies the prism of budgeting in public value, using South Africa’s citizens budget, to examine the role of civil society in developing countries with respect to public value creation. The findings of the chapter indicate that citizens budgets (1) help legitimize political structures through citizen engagement, and (2) help citizens act as “co-creators” of public value. As a corollary, the chapter also serves as an examination of public value creation in a developing country context, finding that proactive citizen engagement can help developing countries achieve levels of budget transparency (and public value creation) that can surpass the standards attained by “developed” countries.
