Coming Apart: Fiscal and Budgetary Policy Processes in the Johnson Administration

Budgeting in the 1980s seems very different from budgeting in the 1960s. The differences have more to do with economic conditions than with the techniques of budgeting. In the article published below, David C. Mowery and Mark S. Kamlet present their interpretation of how budgeting was transformed during the Johnson administration. The editors of this journal, both of whom have conducted research on the Johnson administration, do not share the point of view expressed in this article, but believe that the readers of Public Budgeting and Finance should be provided a diverse range of viewpoints. The editors invite comment on this article and expect to publish articles presenting different interpretations in subsequent issues of the journal.     

Federal Budget Concepts—Bright Lines or Black Holes?

This article reviews a range of issues that are central to the organizing principles of the federal budget—the guidelines that determine whether a transaction belongs in or outside of the budget; and, if it belongs in the budget, how it should be recorded. The article starts by discussing the nature of the federal budget, the powers and responsibilities of the federal government, and related issues, and then discusses four broad sets of budget concepts issues: (I) Budgeting for Earmarked Taxes and Spending; (II) Budgeting for Capital Investment; (III) Classification Categories Within the Budget; and (IV) Evasions of Budgetary Coverage.     

Budget reform—the Malaysian experience

Budget reform had been on the Malaysian government agenda for over two decades. The first major effort at budget reform was the introduction of the Malaysian version of Programme and Performance Budgeting System (MPPB) in 1969. Another major restructuring of the budget process took place in 1989 to modify MPPB. The package of modifications was titled the Modified Budgeting System (MBS). This article reviews the development of budget reform over the past decades. It documents the modest progress of MPPB and examines the rationale of the recent reform. The article then surveys the objectives and elements of the latest initiative in greater depth to assess the extent of its improvement over the previous effort. The article also illustrates, based on the lessons learnt from the implementation of MPPB, that an appropriate administrative structure, culture and implementation strategy are all-important for reform success.     

PUBLIC BUDGETING: CONCEPTS AND APPLICATIONS

Robert W. Burchell, James H. Carr, Richard L. Florida and Jarnes Nemeth. The New Reality of Municipal Finance: The Rise and Fall of the Intergovernmental City .
Government Finance Officers Association. Capital Budgeting: Blueprints for Change .
Edward A. Lehan. Budgetmaking: A Workbook of Public Budgeting Theory and Practice .
Thomas D. Lynch. Public Budgeting in America , 2nd Edition.
John L. Mikesell. Fiscal Administration: Analysis and Applications for the Public Sector , 2nd Edition.     

Toward a Better Understanding of Politics: Linking Costs, Cultures, and Institutional Rules to Budgets

Books reviewed:
Aman Khan, Cost and Optimization in Government
Ronald F. King, Budgeting Entitlements: The Politics of Food Stamps
Steven G. Koven, Public Budgeting in the United States: The Cultural and Ideological Setting     

The ideal profile of the PA expert at the EU level

If public affairs management is what public affairs managers do, then there is no stable definition of the ideal profile of such a manager. There is, however, a need for this in practice. If an interest group decides to strengthen its public affairs function and to open a vacancy, what then should be the text of the profile? The question also has much academic relevance, as it invites a selection of the most important characteristics required for effectively handling and influencing a specific playing field. Below is presented the ideal profile of the public affairs expert at the level of the European Union. As the ideal is always above the reality, we suggest in addition specific training of skills and development of talents in order to bridge the gap. Copyright © 2002 Henry Stewart Publications.     

Growing Grassroots Democracy: Dynamic Outcomes in Building New York City’s Participatory Budgeting Program

Within five years of its launch, Participatory Budgeting in New York City (PBNYC) spread from four to thirty-one of New York’s fifty-one council districts, enabling city residents to directly allocate thirty-eight million dollars in public funds. During this period, PBNYC’s neighborhood-level forums remained largely unchanged, but, in order to sustain growth, administrative shifts altered the institution’s basic design. This article examines how and why this transition affected the degree of popular control afforded by PBNYC, specifically within its cross-district Steering Committee. Analysis of original interviews and organizational documents indicates that the transition brought important, if modest, gains but impeded aspects of community empowerment through bureaucratic resistance and imbalanced governmental-civil society roles. Key players responded by reforming PBNYC’s internal governance. This case sheds light on the factors that shape participatory institutions and their impacts, emphasizing the dynamic interactions between actors and the resulting gains and losses that aggregate toward longer term outcomes.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:
The Politics of Public Budgeting. By I.S. RUBIN (New Jersey: Chatham House, 1990, 248pp). Budgeting In the Provinces: Leadership and the Premiers. Edited by A. MASLOVE
Aboriginal Employment Equity by the Year 2000. Edited by J.C. ALTMAN
Making Equity Planning Work. By NORMAN KRUMHOLZ and JOHN FORESTER     

Curriculum Reform in Budgeting and Financial Management: Preliminary Thoughts on the Dimension of the Field

Editors' note: In January 1984, Dick Hickman, chairperson-elect of the Section on Budgeting and Financial Management, American Society for Public Administration, appointed a task force of about 30 ASPA members on Budgeting and Financial Management Curriculum Reform. The task force is charged to report at the Indianapolis meeting of ASPA in 1985. Professor James R. Alexander was appointed chairman of the task force, and in this capacity convened a double-session roundtable on curriculum reform at the Denver meeting of ASPA in April. This article is Professor Alexander's presentation at that session. The task force welcomes any comments, suggestions, or critiques on this important subject. Such communications may be addressed to Professor James R. Alexander, Department of Political Science, University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, Johnstown, Pennsylvania 15904.     

The President's Commission to Study Capital Budgeting: An Interim Review

The President's Commission to Study Capital Budgeting is slated to complete its report by year-end 1998. Even though it would be premature to try to anticipate the Commission's recommendations, it is already clear that the Commission will contribute significantly to the capital budgeting debate by casting the concept of capital budgeting broadly, as a systematic decision process, rather than merely a budget accounting or scoring convention or a government financing alternative to the balanced budget rule. This article summarizes some of the analytical accomplishments of the Commission at the mid-point of its expected life.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
Richard Goode, Government Finance in Developing Countries
A. Premchand, Government Budgeting and Expenditure Tools
A. Premchand and Jesse Burkhead, (eds.) Comparative International Budgeting and Finance
Robert W. Burchell, James H. Carr, Richard L. Florida, James Nemeth with Michael Pawlick and Felix R. Barreto, The New Reality of Municipal Finance
James Chan, (ed.) Research in Governmental and Nonprofit Accounting, Volume 1     

Participatory Budgeting and Community-Based Research: Principles,Practices, and Implications for Impact Validity

Research and evaluation is an integral part of the Participatory Budgeting (PB) process. Since PB in New York City (PBNYC) is designed to be a democratic and community-based initiative that is grounded in the values of equity and inclusion, it is important that the research and evaluation methods used to study the process and its participants adhere to the same principles. For the past five years, a team of community-based researchers, academics, and PB participants have designed research questions and instruments, implemented data collection, analyzed and shared data with PB participants and practitioners, and issued reports to the wider public. Like PB, the research design is rooted in the communities where PB is operating. The research is not intended to sit on a shelf but is actively used by participants and practitioners to help reflect on the process, improve deliberation in decision-making, and strengthen the process and outcomes of PB. This article will discuss Participatory Action Research principles used by the Community Development Project of the Urban Justice Center, explore the applicability of these principles to the Participatory Budgeting research context, and explain how these practices have helped to deepen and improve the process and outcomes of PBNYC.     

Graduate Curricula in Budgeting and Financial Management: Recommendations for Reform

This is an abridged version of the final report of the American Society for Public Administration's (ASPA) Section on Budgeting and Financial Management's Task Force on Curriculum Reform. The report was produced by the Section on Budgeting and Financial Management's Executive Committee. The complete final report is available from Robert Berne, Graduate School of Public Administration, New York University, 4 Washington Square North, New York, NY 1003, or James Alexander, Department of Political Science, University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, Johnstown, PA 15904.     

Dynamic Ideal Point Estimation via Markov Chain Monte Carlo for the U.S. Supreme Court, 1953-1999

At the heart of attitudinal and strategic explanations of judicialbehavior is the assumption that justices have policy preferences.In this paper we employ Markov chain Monte Carlo methods tofit a Bayesian measurement model of ideal points for all justicesserving on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1953 through 1999. Weare particularly interested in determining to what extent idealpoints of justices change throughout their tenure on the Court.This is important because judicial politics scholars oftentimesinvoke preference measures that are time invariant. To investigatepreference change, we posit a dynamic item response model thatallows ideal points to change systematically over time. Additionally,we introduce Bayesian methods for fitting multivariate dynamiclinear models to political scientists. Our results suggest thatmany justices do not have temporally constant ideal points.Moreover, our ideal point estimates outperform existing measuresand explain judicial behavior quite well across civil rights,civil liberties, economics, and federalism cases.     

The Line-Item Veto in Government Budgeting

Beginning in January 1997, the president will have the power to veto line-items in appropriations bills This article examines four paragraphs about the line-item veto from Jesse Burkhead's Government Budgeting . Eight themes from Burkhead's writing are identified and compared to practice by the states.     

To PPB or Not PPB – Budgeting in Victorian Local Government

Budgeting is an important element in a public sector organisation's accounting control system. There are a number of budgetary methods that could be used, each with an explicitly different focus. This article investigates possible reasons for Victorian local government selecting line item budgeting, planning programming budgeting (PPB) or a combination of the two. While program budgeting arguably failed in the USA, research shows it was adopted by local government. Australian researchers report similar findings, yet the introduction of program budgeting into local government has not been explored. Four reasons are postulated: (1) PPB will be adopted because of the complexity of the organisation; (2) PPB will be adopted because it is perceived as an aid to planning; (3) line item budgeting will continue to be used because users are familiar with this type of budgeting; and (4) management's support for the adoption of PPB will be a significant factor in its introduction. A questionnaire was distributed to all the local governments in Victoria and 60 percent were returned. The findings reported in this article confirm the reasons postulated.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed: Steven D. Gold, (ed.) The Unfinished Agenda for State Tax Reform Andrew Dunsire and Christopher Hood, Cutback Management in Public Bureaucracies: Popular Theories and Observed Out-comes in Whitehall The Auditor General's Report to the Legislative Assembly, Province of British Columbia, Canada, April 10, 1989 Charles K. Coe, (ed.) Public Financial Management for Public Budgeting & Finance     

Who is Afraid of the Big Bad Debt? A Modern Money Theory Perspective on Federal Deficits and Debt

The U.S. federal government's deficit is expected to grow to over one trillion dollars in fiscal year (FY) 2020, and the national debt held by the public will likely grow to over $16.7 trillion. Budgeting scholars in the field of public administration have expressed concern over the increasing debt levels. The field of public administration, however, is largely unaware of Modern Money Theory (MMT) and the mechanics of money, which is its focus. MMT argues that understanding the mechanics of money in the U.S. financial system should lead scholars to different conclusions regarding the debt and deficit. This article presents the core arguments of the MMT perspective in this regard, with the goal to trigger further debates about debt and deficit among the community of budgeting scholars.     

Mapping a Field's Development: 20 Years of ABFM Conferences

Public budgeting and financial management has grown into a vibrant and productive research field of study with multiple journals and conferences devoted to the topic. One way to map the field's development is to examine the participants and topics covered in its longest-running dedicated gathering of researchers, the 20 annual conferences of the Association for Budgeting and Financial Management (ABFM). This article traces the 20-year history and composition of ABFM in terms of the participants and topics. It documents the evolution of the field and provides clues to the future direction of public budgeting and financial management published research.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
Robert D. Lee. Jr. and Ronald W. Johnson, Public Budgeting Systems
John L. Mikesell, Fiscal Administration: Analysis and Application for the Public Sector
S. Rosen, Public Finance