Offers an investigative, behind-the-scenes look at New York City's participatory budgeting (PB) process, which takes readers through an entire annual cycle

Provides a clear account of issues related primarily to transparency, manipulation, and favoritism that are not commonly acknowledged in the PB literature

Provides a critical review of the experience of the asserted beneficiaries of participatory budgeting and reveals a variety of barriers to actually achieving those benefits

Daniel Williams has been with Baruch College since 1995 where he teaches budgeting, performance measurement, and ethics. Prior, he was the budget director for the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services (Medicaid). Williams has previous studies of New York City Participatory Budgeting with Thad Calabrese and Anubhav Gupta in Administration and Society and of a New York City discretionary spending with Yonghong Wu in the Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting, and Financial Management.

Don Waisanen is a Professor in the Baruch College, CUNY Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, where he teaches courses and workshops in public communication—including executive speech training, communication strategy, and seminars on leadership, storytelling, and conflict management. All his research projects seek to understand how communication works to promote or hinder the force of citizens’ voices.