Epistemic Selection of Costly Alternatives:The Case of Participatory Budgeting (Extended Abstract) | Synapse
February 2, 2026Open Access
Epistemic Selection of Costly Alternatives:The Case of Participatory Budgeting (Extended Abstract)
Key Points
The aim is to explore how votes in participatory budgeting can be seen as estimates of the best projects to fund.
Introduced an epistemic framework for understanding participatory budgeting.
Analyzed the interpretation of votes as estimates of project effectiveness.
Evaluated the implications of these interpretations for funding decisions.
Identified the role of noise in votes affecting budget allocations.
Showed that votes reveal insights into the perceived best projects.
Highlighted complexities in estimating project effectiveness based on public input.
Abstract
We initiate the study of participatory budgeting using the epistemic approach, where one interprets votes as noisy estimates of some ground truth regarding the objectively best set of projects to fund.