55

While the citizen may appear at the fulcrum of financial policy, this major actor remains absent from public finance. Citizens may impinge on it, essentially, only via their elected representatives. It will be seen from the outset to what extent such a position, for the citizen with regard to the budgetary and fiscal context, bears on the workings of democracy. However, further investigation shows that citizenship, when it comes into play, is more of a fiscal (consent to taxation) than budgetary import, as public opinion increasingly has to be taken into account (citizens’ movements). Which morphs, in present times, into the emergence of the citizen, fraught though this may be, in budgetary construction: through the role of pressure groups, requirements for transparency and fair and accurate presentation of accounts, and – last but not least – participatory budgeting at the local level. Real progress, still insufficient however.