Citizen participation in local governments: an international bibliometric análisis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22165292Keywords:
social participation, local government, bibliometricsAbstract
The objective of this study was to analyze international scientific literature on citizen participation in local governments using a bibliometric approach. A descriptive, longitudinal, non-experimental design was used; 2,831 documents indexed in Scopus between 1950 and 2025 were selected, refined from an initial 5,091 records in accordance with the PRISMA 2020 protocol and analyzed using the Bibliometrix software package and its Biblioshiny interface. The analysis combined performance indicators (productivity and impact by year, author, source, institution, and country) with scientific mapping techniques (keyword co-occurrence and thematic mapping). The results show a young field that is rapidly consolidating, with an annual growth rate of 7.96% and a sharp acceleration beginning in 2016. Publications are distributed among 5,743 authors with no dominant figures, as the most prolific author has published 11 papers. The United States leads in publication output by country with 792 papers, followed by Spain with 358, while the most productive institutions are concentrated in Western Europe. International co-authorship reaches 17.2%. The conceptual analysis identifies four trends: transparency and open government, participatory budgeting, e-government, and local democracy, with sustainability as an emerging theme. Citizen participation at the local level is emerging as a dynamic and globally distributed field, centered on the intersection of participation, technology, and democratic governance.
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