Is there a risk of seeing participatory budgeting as a panacea? As a cure for all ills?
Yes! It is as much a serious risk for the municipality (who may come to promise too much) as for the citizenry (who may come to expect too much). In addition, Participatory Budgets only determine the designation of a limited part of the small slice of all public resources represented by municipal budgets. For this reason, the initial dialogue between the municipality and the public, to define the reach and the rules of the game, is important.
