Cutback budgeting: The long-term consequences

This study asks whether short-term cutbacks made during a fiscal crisis become permanent once fiscal conditions improve. Hypotheses are developed to establish a framework for analyzing a time-series data set. These hypotheses address trade-offs between less essential versus more essential services, salaries versus positions, and capital versus operating expenditures. Then long-term consequences are assessed with a longitudinal, comparative case study of the effects of New York City's mid-1970s fiscal crisis on education services in the city. Education services were cut dramatically in 1976 and 1977. The trends in those services, defined in various ways, are compared over time and in relationship to the rest of New York State. We find that less essential services, teacher positions, and capital and maintenance expenditures suffered, relative to more essential services, operating expenditures, and teacher salaries.     

State Budgetary Processes and Reforms: The California Story

This paper analyzes state budgetary processes and reforms to inform California budgetary policy. We consider key institutional provisions, including budget periodicity, tax and expenditure limitations, balanced budget and reserve requirements, and supermajority vote requirements, and analyze the extent to which changes are likely to advance procedural norms. Our analysis suggests that empirically unproven assumptions and poorly articulated linkages between budgetary processes and outcomes have undermined the state's ability to understand the budgetary problem and identify effective reforms. We recommend a focus on procedural norms and related reforms that promote effective budgeting processes as a less partisan framework for reform.     

Cutback Management and the Paradox of Publicness

Cutback management in the public sector poses unique problems. More than 30 years ago, Charles Levine illustrated these problems by discussing the paradoxes of cutback management in public organizations. Building on Levine's work on cutback management and developments in publicness theory, the author provides a contemporary perspective on cutback management. He asserts that publicness creates paradoxical tensions in different domains such as organizational goals, employee motivation, and organizational performance. These tensions need to be embraced in both theoretical discussions of and practical engagement with cutback management. Instead of a short‐term, reductionist approach to cutback management, a holistic and long‐term perspective is necessary.     

Incremental Thinking: "The Lack of a Budgetary Theory"

Editor's Note: More than 40 years ago. V.O. Key identified the basic budgeting question as: ”On what basis shall it be decided to allocate x dollars to activity A instead of activity B?“ Despite decades of budgetary research and innovation, the question remains unanswered and probably unanswerable. As Key recognized, a solution to this problem would constitute a full-blown theory of government. Although neither Key nor others have provided a firm answer to this basic question. Key's article is a valuable reminder that budgeting is much more than technique. This lesson is immediately forgotten when the latest reform comes to market promising a neat formula for dividing the budget pie. The lesson is relearned again when administrative and political pathologists seek cause and effect for the failure of the most recent promising innovation.     

The Vicious Circle of Cutback Policies: Citizens' Attitudes Toward Cutbacks in Finnish Welfare Services

In most western countries, public services have been the target of cur-backs during the past few years. It is often argued that support for a strong welfare slate has declined. In this article, attitudes towards public services in Finland are examined. Factors affecting the willingness to accept cuts were studied using a structural equation model and correspondence analysis. The analysis revealed that piecemeal deterioration in public services can form a vicious circle. The lower the quality of public services, the more citizens are willing to accept cuts in them. The results also lend some support to the argument that the new middle classes are most willing to see market-based options implemented in service production.     

Revenue Diversification in Arkansas Cities: The Budgetary and Tax Effort Impacts

The consequences of revenue shortfalls for cities are particularly dramatic due to the balanced‐budget requirement. Revenue diversification is one method of stabilizing revenue streams because diversified revenue structures can mitigate the revenue fluctuations often associated with single source revenue. Using audited financial reports, this study examines the impact of revenue diversification in Arkansas cities over 10 years. To address the issue of revenue adequacy, this study examines diversification's impact on current year budget changes in revenue and expenditures as well as its impact on tax effort.     

The Strange Budgetary Politics of Agricultural Research Earmarks

This article explores how members of the House and Senate Subcommittees on Agricultural Appropriations use the appropriations process to earmark special grants for agricultural research projects without forming a majority logroll. It also shows how subcommittee members coerce the USDA into administering individual earmarked research grants even though the precise allocation of these grants does not have the force of law. This article makes an important contribution because it analyzes an institutional development within the appropriations process that has not been explored in the existing literature, and it examines the consequences that this development has had on the quality of USDA‐funded agricultural research.     

Budgetary Reform in Haiti from 1996-98: A Case Study of Issues and Obstacles in Implementing Change

With the restoration of democracy and new lending agreements with the international community, the Haitian government embarked upon an ambitious program of budgetary reforms in 1996. For the next two years, Haiti's Ministry of Economy and Finance pursued administrative and legislative changes intended to address significant problems with the country's budget preparation and execution. This article examines the types of problems the Ministry faced and how it chose to address them. The author concludes that though the Ministry made important progress, the ultimate success of the reforms was impeded by weakness in the administrative capacity of the government and a persistent lack of clear political consensus and direction in the country.     

How Political Stability Shapes Administrative Performance: The Italian Case

During the last decade in many European Union countries it has clearly emerged that states with weak administrative capacity at the subnational level are more likely to have serious problems with the mismanagement of Structural Funds, or even with accessing them. As a result, some member states such as Italy have embarked upon a programme of institutional and administrative reforms aimed at increasing their administrative capacity. However, retrospective data shows that even though some regions have implemented all the required reforms, their performance has remained unchanged. Along with administrative requirements, are political conditions as such to guarantee that administrative capacity can produce the desired effects? What happens if we do not have political stability that allows for continuity and coherence in administrative actions? Political stability is a controversial variable and theories within the literature present ambiguous results. Some authors strongly claim that stability hinders performance because it fosters the practice of clientelism and the entrenchment of distributional coalitions. In contrast, I aim to explore whether and why, in some cases, stability is actually a variable that accounts for better and improved administrative performance.     

Accountability via Performance Measurement: The Case of Child Protection Services

Since the 1980s child protection agencies have been subject to enormous scrutiny about perceived poor performance. Concerns are expressed about the capacity of services to cope with demand, the quality of practice, out‐of‐home care standards, and poor outcomes for children. Enter performance measurement. Using quantitative data to monitor effectiveness and efficiency, performance measurement promises improved resource management and accountability. This article discusses national, Victorian and Queensland child protection performance measurement regimes. It examines the extent to which performance measurement is used to promote accountability, as well as the indirect role of performance measurement in communicating policy intent. It suggests performance measurement is under‐utilised in child protection, but could be enhanced to contribute to better outcomes for children and families.     

英国全面绩效评价体系:实践及启示

全面绩效评价是英国在2002～2008年间用于评价地方政府工作绩效与持续改进能力的工具,是英国绩效评价发展历程中历时最长、成效卓著的评价形式.在全面绩效评价完成其使命后,梳理其演化变迁的历程、框架结构、基本规则等,并评价其所取得的成就与存在的不足,对我国政府绩效评价中的评价内容确定、评价主体选择、评价指标构成、评价标准与结果使用等多方面均有启示.     

The Case for the Development of Public Transit in an Urban Boundary Rural Area

Individuals' preferences for automobiles are often taken for granted in our auto centric society. This study attempts to determine if commuters in a city located beyond the fringe of a metropolitan area are willing to use public transit if it is developed and what are the socioeconomic and attitudinal factors that influence individuals' decision to use such a service. Analyses of survey data reveal that preferences exist for public transit service, which can be partly attributed to individuals' concerns regarding rising gasoline prices and air pollution, and is particularly noticeable among those who are educated and/or belong to a younger age group.     

乡镇政府绩效考核体系创新路径及影响——基于G市的案例分析

政治锦标赛作为我国官员晋升及地方政府竞争的重要范式,也是地方治理创新的重要场域.通过对G市的个案研究发现,由于控制与自主的失衡,导致基层政治锦标赛的失灵及乡镇政府“无为而治”的局面.而新型城镇化背景下的乡镇政治锦标赛体制的创新,由于受压力型体制的影响,在激发乡镇政府自主性及推动县域经济社会发展的同时,又进一步强化了基层政府“选择性治理”倾向,进而扭曲了新型城镇化的价值导向.为加快基层治理的现代化,乡镇绩效考核体系需要从“压力型考核”向“公众参与式”评价转型,加快乡镇服务型政府的建设.     

案例指导制度的确立与构建

援引成案作为判处新案的根据,在中国法制史上有着悠久的传统.当今中国,法院系统也在理论和司法实践中积极地探索这一制度.结合司法实践,在把握案例指导制度内涵及其适用前提的基础上,从明确案例的法律效力、明确制定和发布案例的机构、建立案例的遴选制度、明确案例的制作标准、建立案例的管理系统,以及加强案例的宣传等方面构建案例指导制度,在我国法学理论和实践中具有必要性和可行性.