Public participation in the budgetary process in the Republic of Croatia

The International Monetary Fund’s fourth review of the Fiscal Transparency Code from 2014 sets out the principle of participation according to which the government must provide citizens with a brief, simple and easily understandable overview of the implications of all budgetary measures and with an opportunity to participate in the budgetary decision-making process. The Fiscal Transparency Code must be implemented in Croatia, which is an IMF member state, so this paper uses an interdisciplinary approach to point out the importance and economic effects of public participation in the budgetary process, identify the normative mechanisms of public participation in the budgetary process, and look into what they comprise of and whether they can help in achieving „participation in budgetary decision-making“, as provided for by point 2.3.3. of the Code in Croatia. It is assumed that the Croatian legal system provides various normative mechanisms of public participation in the budgetary process, which enables the implementation of the participation principle set out in the Code. These mechanisms are, however, not specific to the budgetary process itself, but rather represent general normative mechanisms of public participation, which apply in the legislative process as well.