Within many developed western democracies, there is a continued phenomenon of apathy, lower political participation and a slow decline of participation in democratic institutions. Low voter turnouts during normal election cycles are a common occurrence and participants express lower level of trust in the government. Strategies have been implemented to combat this democratic decline, but one process that has been used worldwide to some success by creating deliberative spaces to engage in discussions around priorities is Participatory Budgeting,

This thesis provides an overview of how democratic decline is experienced within the United States and how it affects participants. This thesis will seek to address how Participatory Budgeting impacts democratic deficit using the case study of Long Beach, CA. This thesis utilizes a Means and Ends Descriptive model that helps to explain the components of the process, coupled with an analytical framework that analyzes engagement, empowerment and equity outcomes. Participatory Budgeting has the capacity to build empowerment, engagement and equity within communities. However, the case of Long Beach, CA demonstrates that without building the spaces to create spaces that share power of political institutions or priorities over general governmental budgets, not much is done to counteract the phenomenon of democratic deficit.