In search of budgetary excellence: the government finance officers association award for distinguished budget presentation

During the twentieth century, American governments progressed from essentially no use of government budgeting to experimentation with a host of budgeting strategies designed to improve the control, efficiency, and decision making capacity of governing agencies. In 1984, the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada sought to synthesize many of these approaches into a broad definition of budgetary excellence by the establishment of an Award for Distinguished Budget Presentation. This article reviews the effort to define budgetary excellence, then offers a discussion of the lessons learned during the first years of the program's operation. he of the products of the program's operation.     

Citizen participation and the redistribution of public goods

This study investigates whether citizen participation in public budgeting resulted in increased redistributive outcomes when compared with bureaucratic decision‐making. We focused on a specific budget item (i.e., the installation of surveillance cameras for crime prevention) and examined whether participatory budgeting yielded larger budget allocations to low‐income neighbourhoods. Results indicate that such participatory budgeting results in larger budget allocations for low‐income neighbourhoods when compared with allocations produced by bureaucratic budgeting practices. The results also indicate that budgets allocated through citizen participation may be no more or even less effective for advancing public goals. These findings suggest a potential trade‐off between equity and public service effectiveness. Citizen participation improves budget equity, but may be less effective for achieving public goals than bureaucratic decision‐making. To explain this, we offer the ‘social pressure hypothesis’, which posits that social pressure during public‐forum discussions can influence participating citizens to make redistributive decisions.     

An Evaluation of Performance-Based Budget Reform in Asian Countries

This article investigates the effects of performance-based budgeting (PBB) adoption on the spending of the central government in eleven Asian countries over an 18-year period. The theoretical argument is that PBB does not permanently change the spending structure for various reasons, including but not limited to the lack of clear linkages between performance results and resource allocation. This hypothesis is supported by the study’s results, which suggest that PBB temporarily changes the spending size in some programs. However, such changes are not permanent; there are no structural changes in the baseline budget. These findings suggest that PBB may not be different than other budget reforms.     

Barriers to Participation: Exploring Gender in Peru’s Participatory Budget Process

As citizens increasingly work to improve transparency and governance, participatory budgeting (PB) has emerged in thousands of cities. Advocates argue that PB can serve to educate citizens, increase transparency, and even improve living standards in the cities and towns that implement this form of public finance. However, we still know very little about how inclusive these processes are. This article asks: first, are participatory budgeting processes engaging women and men equally? Second, if gender exclusion is taking place, why? Finally, what can the development community do to begin to eradicate exclusion? Through the case study of participatory budgeting in Peru, the article documents that participatory budgeting in this country is not inclusive. Economic barriers, combined with the fact that women are expected to take on most domestic duties, make it very hard for women to actually attend meetings, especially in rural areas where poverty and patriarchy are more pronounced. Additionally, the weakness of women’s organizations prevents many organizations from registering to attend these processes. The article concludes with recommendations for advocates who wish to rectify these challenges through concrete interventions.     

No staff,no time,no money: Can budget reform work in a rural county?

Budget reforms directed toward providing more information and analysis for management and policy making appear to be most widely used by larger jurisdictions. Reforms such as performance budgeting, program budgeting, and zero based budgeting are associated with professionalism, management information systems, budget staffs, and a lengthy budget preparation and planning phase. This article addresses the question of whether it is possible to implement budget reform without the staff and financial resources that so often goes hand-in-hand with it. The experience of one rural county government in attempting budget reform is examined.     

Policy Diffusion and Performance-based Budgeting

This article applied the policy diffusion model as a theoretical framework for interpreting the international spread of performance-based budgeting, based upon 33 OECD case studies of countries that have implemented this reform. The data show that the historical development of performance-based budgeting was fairly consistent with the diffusion model. In particular, the adoption of performance budgeting took off during 1985–1995 and then accelerated over the following 15 years, and the primary innovators were a group of four English-speaking countries with comparatively laissez-faire economies (the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand). The case studies indicated that performance-based budgeting was generally part of a broader program of governmental reform, that executive agencies were more important than parliaments in managing it, that it became quite important in budget- and policy-making, and that implementing it faced a significant number of challenges.     

Performance Budgeting in American States: A Framework of Integrating Performance with Budgeting

The past 20 years have witnessed ongoing endeavors researching the factors that influence the implementation of performance budgeting. While various factors have been identified, the effort to build frameworks is still lacking. This research proposes a framework to study the nature of relationships among various political, economic, legal, and organizational factors with performance budgeting, as evidenced in US state governments. We found that the presence and the characteristics of the legal foundation, managing for performance, shared responsibilities with the legislature, and capacity building are the most important factors. The environmental factors, however, are not statistically significant.     

Strategic planning and budgeting in the “new texas”: putting service efforts and accomplishments to work

Texas implemented a new “strategic budgeting” system to craft the state's 1994-95 biennial budget. This performance-based budgeting system combines strategic planning, service efforts and accomplishments (SEA) indicators and reporting, and line-item appropriations. This article reviews the ideas and process behind linking strategic planning and line-item budgeting and describes the key role of SEA indicators. Interviews with agency practitioners and the experiences of the Governor's Office of Budget and Planning are used to evaluate the system.     

Useful,But Not A Panacea: Performance-Based Program Budgeting in Florida

Abstract

Florida's performance-based budgeting reform, called performance-based program budgeting or PB², followed a defined plan of implementation from its inception in 1995. The reform's implementation was perhaps more interesting for its dynamic adjustments than its planned progression, however. At various points along the reform trajectory key entities charged with driving the reform process had to deal with challenges to both the substance of reform and its day-to-day management. This article presents some of the story of this process. PB² has not proved a panacea for all the budgeting woes governments like Florida's may face, but it has been useful and the story of its implementation should be of interest.     

Public Participation in Budgeting: The New Path of Budget Reform in Thailand

The purposes of this article are three fold. First is to explore the status of public participation budgeting in central, regional, and local administrative levels of Thailand. Second is to develop a model of public participation budgeting that fits with the contexts of each level. Third is to recommend some directions for budgetary reform in Thailand. This article employs qualitative methodologies using a multi-method approach for data collection, including in-depth interviews, focus groups, and work visits. The findings are discussed and compared with international experiences. Finally, a public participation budgeting typology is proposed and guidelines for budget reform are provided.     

Financing the capital budget: change and transition

The changes in intergovernmental finance which occurred in the 1980s have impacted the traditional roles of state and local governments in many areas. The changing roles of such governments in the financing of infrastructure and public capital investments have been particularly pronounced. Their growing responsibilities in infrastructure finance has led to an enhanced emphasis on capital budgeting and on developing new initiatives in the capital financing arena. This article explores the impact of such changes on the strategies that are and will, probably, be employed by state and local governments to finance future capital acquisitions in a changing economy and intergovernmental fiscal environment.     

Performance Contracting as an Instrument for Improving Performance in Government: An Indian Experience

In this article, the effectiveness of the Performance Contracting or the Results Framework Document (RFD) process and its impact on improving Government's performance in the Indian context were analyzed. The results reveal that the RFD process has a significant and positive impact on the performance of ministries in the Government of India. The initiative has helped in an objective assessment of ministries and a focused effort on achieving the organizational targets, and in enabling performance orientation among civil servants. It has also contributed to a refining of the organization's vision and mission and their integration with the organizational objectives. However, the process has been driven by civil servants. The initiative has not been integrated with the budgeting process, and the performance appraisal and performance-based incentive systems. The study has enabled validation of existing frameworks of PMS and incorporating the RFD process in a generic integrated framework of PMS.     

Responding to fiscal stress: Fiscal institutions and fiscal adjustment in four Brazilian states

Despite similar external shocks and pressures, Brazilian state leaders varied in the timing and the manner in which they adjusted to fiscal stress. Some state leaders rapidly switched to market-oriented strategies that cut public intervention in the economy. Other state leaders delayed adjustment, and when they finally put their accounts in order it was through market-governing strategies that preserved government activism. In part, these different fiscal policy regimes were products of the decision-making process in which chief executives operated. In states where budgeting obeyed a more open and democratic pattern, chief executives lacked autonomy and were forced to build coalitions to adjust. This meant that they adjusted more slowly and their adjustment strategies included appeals to broad interests, including those seeking protection from market pressures. In states where budgeting was more autocratic, chief executives could act quickly and without building a coalition. The current project uses structured comparison to contrast adjustment patterns in two democratic-budgeting states and two autocratic-budgeting states. The link between budget institutions and adjustment strategy appears to hold regardless of the socioeconomic condition of the states and the political hue of the state leaders.     

Contract Budgeting

Contract budgeting attempts to reconfigure public budgeting as a system of purchase contracts between provider agencies and central government. It draws its inspiration from a simple model of contract in which the purchaser buys clearly specified outputs from a provider at a preagreed price. Contract budgeting thus represents a fusion of output-based budgeting schemas with the newer enthusiasm for placing the public sector on a 'market' footing. This paper reviews the problems which confront any form of output based budgeting, and then analyses the specific issues of contractualization. It concludes that contract budgeting does not well fit the realities of budgeting in a complex public sector.     

Egypt’s Many Public Administration Transitions: Reform Vision and Implementation Challenges

ABSTRACT

This article discusses Egypt’s many transitions toward public administration reform. It argues that some of these transitions have collided with an existing large and complex bureaucracy and a legacy of state-led development, such as the protracted and contentious process related to the civil service regulation reforms. Similarly, despite decades of decentralization efforts, state budgeting praxis remains centralized and concentrated. While attracting private investment for job creation and economic growth is a key priority to Egypt, state centrism overshadows the experience. Other transitions, however, have thrived at a much faster pace, such as the adoption of e-government.     

Fiscal Stress Management During the Financial and Economic Crisis: The Case of the Baltic Countries

The Baltic countries—Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania—were severely hit by the global financial and economic crisis in 2008–2011. In response to the crisis, all three states chose to undertake extensive fiscal consolidations. This article examines the strategies adopted by the Baltic governments for managing fiscal stress and consolidating their budgets in the light of the existing literature on cutback budgeting. In all three countries, the governments combined expenditure and revenue measures, with a larger share of adjustment taking place on the expenditure side. Among expenditure measures, a mix of across-the-board and targeted cuts was adopted, though the importance of targeted cuts increased over time. The case studies also indicate that although the theoretical propositions of the cutback budgeting literature point to the correct directions overall, further refinement is needed in several theoretical issues.     

COMPARING BUSH–CHENEY AND CLINTON–GORE PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES: ARE THEY MORE ALIKE THAN DIFFERENT?

Successful performance management strategies are intrinsically linked to the political environment in which public policy‐making occurs. Since the mid‐1990s, many governments have re‐examined how to simultaneously reduce costs, increase performance and achieve results. Public agencies are experimenting with performance measurement and management systems designed to meet public policy goals and respond to citizen demands. Various reform models have been proposed and public administrators now expend considerable time, effort and resources exchanging ‘best practices’, finding ‘best value’, and ‘rethinking’ government operations. Although equally important, less effort has been devoted to performance management (PM) within increasingly complex, ideologically charged and politicized decision‐making environments. Despite significant increases in productivity, more theoretical and empirical research is needed to assist public managers in applying private market‐based alternatives to public service delivery structures. This article compares the PM initiatives of the Clinton–Gore Administration in the United States, known as the National Performance Review (NPR), with President Bush‘s Presidential Management Agenda (PMA). Following the comparison, a theory‐based research agenda is proposed to determine which of many approaches best ‘fits’ the varied and often contradictory systems for delivering public services in a decentralized governance system.     

Budgeting,policy and administration: patterns and dynamics in the U.S

This article examines the relationships between policy, administration, and budgeting I argue that the administration of government is directly and primarily influenced by changes in policy and budgeting. A conceptual framework of the interrelationship between these three factors is presented. This framework is applied to Schick's classic periodicization of twentieth century U.S. history. Three value orientations of budgeting—control, management, and planning—were evident at different times during these periods. The framework is then applied to the period since 1981, labeled a phase of limitation. This phase has been an unhealthy development in American government.     

Types of budgeting and budgeting problems in aclerican cities

This research investigates the types of budgeting formats used in over 200 United States cities and provides information about the budgetary problems facing American cities. The perception of budgeting problems differs significantly among cities with different types of budgeting. Cities using line-item budgeting are more likely to view the problems as more severe than do the cities using reform budgeting. The problems are the least severe in cities using planning, programming budgeting.