Public Budgeting: Policy, Process and Politics

by Rubin,Irene S.

• ISBN13: 9780765616913
• ISBN10: 0765616912
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2008-03-15
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Some of the best writings on public budgeting and finance can be found in the journals that ASPA publishes or sponsors. For this volume editor Irene Rubin has brought together the best of these articles--emerging classics that address the most important theoretical and practical problems underlying public budgeting. The anthology is organized topically rather than historically, with an effort to delineate the issues needed to understand some of the more recent controversies in the field. Rubin's introductory essay and section openers frame the key issues and provide historical context for each article. The collection begins with descriptions of what public budgeting is, where it comes from, and what it is for. It moves on to the relationship between budget processes and outcomes, constraints on budgeting, the legal context in which it operates, and adaptations to those constraints such as contracting out. The book concludes with a discussion of the ethics and norms that underlie budgeting in a democracy. Throughout the anthology, the emphasis is on areas of disagreement and debate, so students can get involved and explore different viewpoints.

Table of Contents

Introduction

What Is a Public Budget? Origins and Purposes

Making "Common Sense" Out of Federal Budgeting

Who Invented Public Budgeting in the United States?

The Road to PPB: The Stages of Budget Reform

Budgeting in a Democracy: Institutional Arrangements

Paradox, Ambiguity, and Enigma: The Strange Case of the Executive Budget and the United States Constitution

The Executive Budget: An Idea Whose Time Has Passed?

The End of Executive Dominance in State Appropriations

Budgeting by the Ballot: Initiatives in the State of Montana

The Roles of the Key Budget Actors and Decision Making

Role of the Executive Budget Office

The Office of Management and Budget in a Changing Scene

The Shifting Roles of State Budget Offices in the Midwest: Gosling Revisited

The Courts-When and How They Intervene

Courts and Public Purse Strings: Have Portraits of Budgeting Missed Something?

The Bureaucracy

Federal Agency Budget Officers: Who Needs Them?

The Budget-Minimizing Bureaucrat? Empirical Evidence from the Senior Executive Service

Incrementalism

Police Budgeting: Winning Strategies

Aaron Wildavsky and the Demise of Incrementalism

Decision Strategies of the Legislative Budget Analyst: Economist or Politician?

The Budget Process

Ten Years of the Budget Act: Still Searching for Controls

Deficit Politics and Constitutional Government: The Impact of Gramm-Rudman-Hollings

The Budget Enforcement Act and Its Survival: Congress Hears from Experts

Does Budget Format Really Govern the Actions of Budgetmakers?

Participatory Democracy and Budgeting: The Effects of Proposition 13

Constraints

Federalism

Changes in Intergovernmental Fiscal Patterns

At What Price? Costs of Federal Mandates Since the 1980s

Entitlements

The Inflexibility of Contemporary Budgets

Re-establishing Budgetary Flexibility

Entitlement Budgeting vs. Bureau Budgeting

Tax and Expenditure Limitations

Constraint and Uncertainty: Budgeting in California

Restraint in a Land of Plenty: Revenue and Expenditure Limitations in Texas

Court Decisions and Constitutional Rights

Budgeting Rights: The Case of Jail Litigation

Privatization and Contracting

Competition and Choice in New York City Social Services

The Need for a Privatization Process: Lessons from Development and Implementation

Budget Norms and Ethics

Budgetary Balance: The Norm, Concepts, and Practice in Large U.S. Cities

Federal Budget Concept-Bright Lines or Black Holes?

Accountability and Entrepreneurial Public Management: The Case of the Orange County Investment Fund

The Lottery and Education: Robbing Peter to Pay Paul?

The Monster That Ate the United States Senate

Index

About the Editor

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