The democratic arena is facing many challenges. One big challenge is how to involve and engage citizens in the governance of their surroundings. The way people engage in societal issues is changing; political parties are experiencing decreasing number of members and the members are not as active as they were previously. Involvement in the issues is many times rising as a protest action. People seem to choose other ways and areas to channel their societal engagement than through the established ways of influencing the national and local development through the political parties. With less active engagement in the political sphere, the citizens also know less about the municipality and how it works. With that comes the risk of the municipality appearing only as a provider of services and the citizen as a customer thus loosing the aspect of a municipality as a democratic arena and engagement of the citizens being primarily protesting rather than proactive.
To answer to the need of further engaging the citizens in the development of their local environment and participate in the development NŠssjš municipality started a five year project of participatory budgeting in the areas and towns in the municipality.
Previous to the participatory budgeting project there was a development project in the four bigger towns in the municipality (between 800 and 2000 inhabitants). That project had a focus on physical improvements and local involvement. The project was successful and this project is a natural continuation and further improvement on the previous project taking advantage of the experience and lessons learned. Through the participatory budgeting project the smaller eight towns/villages and their surrounding countryside (between 600 and 300 inhabitants) get to be a part of a democratic and creative process leading to physical improvements in their immediate surroundings.