The Pending Revolution in Federal Accounting Standards

Accounting standards constitute the body of guidance needed to provide coherence and direction to accountants on how to keep the books. They inform the accountant about the logic of the way that accounting data should be organized and displayed in order to maximize its value to the prospective user. (The prospective users, in the case of federal accounting, range from the president and Congress through agency managers to the general public.) Federal accounting standards are the equivalent, for accounting, of budget concepts for the federal budget. After a long genesis, federal accounting standards are in the midst of a revolution which, if it succeeds, will transform the way accounting reports on federal fiscal activities and how it relates to the federal budget. This article, written from the perspective of a budget concepts technician who has participated in this effort, reviews these developments and where they seem to be heading.     

The Evolution of Accounting for Receipts in the Federal Budget

This article discusses the fundamental concepts governing budget scorekeeping of federal receipts. It is a companion to a previous article that discussed "offsetting collections," which is income that is recorded as offsets to federal outlays rather than as federal receipts. This article begins by showing the structure of the receipts table in the first presidential budget, which was the 1923 budget, and it provides a chronological discussion of how the budget presentation of receipts has evolved since then. The article then recapitulates the present budget concepts for receipts and lists the five most common challenges to them. It ends with a brief reference to the best sources for data on federal receipts, and two appendices that discuss technical issues that arise in the course of the article.     

The Governor as Innovator in the Federal System

Until recent decades, governors seeking to provide innovativeleadership often did so despite being handicapped by inadequateinstitutional powers, leaving them to their own personal skills.Recent reforms have now provided many governors with greaterinstitutional powers, including more tenure potential, enhancementof the governor's office, a stronger budget capacity, and therise of policy and planning offices located in or close to thegovernor's office. Most important, governors are more aggressivein seeking answers to policy issues both within their own statesand in collaboration with other governors. The National GovernorsAssociation has been upgraded to assist governors in dealingwith the federal government and with state problems. RecentNGA efforts in the areas of education and economic developmentmay presage an even more significant change as governors addressmajor issues jointly.     

The West German Federal Constitutional Court as Guardian of the Federal System

The West German Federal Constitutional Court has generally actedas a guardian of the German federal system. The Court has preventedattempts by the federation to encroach upon the modest autonomyleft to the Länder. If a national solution for a problemseems indispensable, the Court favors techniques that compensatethe Länder for a loss of autonomy by granting them certainparticipation rights. Guided by that principle, the Court'sconstruction of the Basic Law has increased considerably thenumber of federal statutes that require the approval of theBunesrat. Thus the Court emphasizes today the idea of partnership.However, in a 1986 decision, the Court made clear that a certainamount of federal leadership is needed to keep the system running.In this decision, the Court reminded the federation expresslyof its responsibility for the whole.     

The Two-Party System and the Federal Political Process

As part of its transition program to civilian federal democracy,the federal military government has constitutionalized a two-partysystem along federal lines, provided funding and other facilitiesto the two parties, and established institutions, such as theNational Electoral Commission and the Directorate for SocialMobilisation, to supervise and oversee the two-party process.This regimentation is seen as being necessary because Nigeriahas not been able to sustain either democracy or a stable partysystem in the past. The stage has been set, therefore, for themaintenance of a two-party system in the Third Republic, butmany problems remain to be resolved before the stable, competitiveparty system becomes rooted in Nigeria's federal system, societaldiversity, and political culture.     

The Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board: An Introduction for Non-Accountants

This article discusses the disagreement over set accounting standards for federal agencies that GAO published in "Title 2" of its Policies and Procedures Manual for the Guidance of Federal Agencies . The Office of Management and Budget has declined to require agencies to follow the standards although many agencies do follow the standards in completing financial statements. These differences are a result of doubt regarding the appropriateness of the standards as well as the constitutionality of the standards. Therefore, the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board was created with the goal of securing agreement on standards for federal accounting.     

The Evolution of the Nigerian Federal Administration System

This article reviews the major consequences for the evolutionof Nigeria's public administration of the process by which the"loose" model of federalism adopted in 1954 was transformedinto one in which the national government became dominant from1966 onwards. To illustrate how this development affected theemerging public administration system, two broad themes areexamined: (1) the structure, organization, and functioning ofthe federal and subnational units and (2) issues in intergovernmentalrelations, notably the allocation of jurisdictional powers,fiscal federalism, public personnel administration, and localgovernments. The conclusion points out some of the key issuesthat are likely to dominate the Nigerian federal system duringthe next decade.     

Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and Federal Government Financial Reporting

This article considers the nature of generally accepted accounting principles and how well they match the purpose and activities of the federal government. A comparison of fundamental differences affecting accounting and reporting for private business and the federal government shows that although the generally accepted accounting principles do not work for the federal government, it does not follow that the federal government has nothing to gain from these principles.     

Regulating Atomic Energy in the American Federal System

Congress totally preempted the regulation of ionizing radiationin 1946. In 1954 it authorized the private development and useof atomic energy. In 1959, Congress authorized the Atomic EnergyCommission to enter into agreements with states under whicha state can assume certain regulatory responsibilities. As of1987, twenty-nine states had signed agreements. Congress hasenacted several statutes structuring national-state relationsin the field of atomic energy since the Atomic Energy Act of1959. The Low Level Radioactive Policy Act of 1980 makes statesresponsible for disposing of low-level radioactive wastes generatedwithin their respective borders. The Nuclear Waste Policy Actof 1982 established a procedure for locating a site for a high-levelwaste facility. The Secretary of Energy can select a site subjectto a veto by a governor or state legislature and an overrideof the veto by Congress. Two major regulatory developments occurredin 1987. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission amended its rulesand regulations to allow the licensing of new nuclear powerplants in the absence of state and local government participationin emergency evacuation plans for residents living near suchplants. In addition, Congress disregarded its 1982 procedurefor selecting a high-level radioactive waste site by choosingNevada as the site.     

Financing the German Federal System in the 1980s

Public finance is a crucial issue in any federation. In thesystem of shared public financing in Germany, no unit of governmentis fiscally dependent on the other. The federal and Land governmentsshare the personal income tax, the corporation tax, and thevalue-added sales tax. Because the Bundesrat approves of theshares of these tax yields granted the federal and Land governments,the Länder are deeply involved in the public finance system.Fiscal equalization occurs both vertically and horizontally.The federal government provides the Länder with grants-in-aid,and also shares the financing of a number of "joint tasks."The Länder share their tax yields with their local governments.Fiscal transfers also take place among the richer and poorerLänder and among the municipalities within the boundariesof individual counties. Controversy exists over the shares tobe given the respective governments from the value-added taxand over fiscal equalization between the richer (South) andpoorer (North) Länder.     

Preemption in the U.S. Federal System

The sharp increase in the number of congressional partial andtotal preemption statutes and innovative use of preemption powerssince 1965 have produced major changes infederal-state relations.The Congress has become a unitary government in several regulatoryfields and also finances its policies in other fields inpartby imposing burdensome mandates and restraints on state andlocal governments. Current federalism theories fail to accountfor the changes produced by preemption or to address alternativesto preemption other than conditional grants-in-aid     

State Corporate and Federal Securities Law: Dual Regulation in a Federal System

Corporate law in the United States involves dual regulation.Although state and federal corporate law typically functionwithout mutual interference, the last thirty years have revealedpotential conflicts, chiefly in two situations. One involvescivil remedies for investors under federal securities statutes;the other is state anti-takeover regulation and its relationshipto the federal Williams Act. The postwar years until 1975 sawperhaps too much reliance on the federal component of corporateregulation. Since 1975, there has been a renaissance of statelaw. Recently, however, appreciation for state regulatory authoritymay have degenerated into hostility to the will of Congress.The authors argue that the core interpretive task in federalsecurities law is preservation of both regimes to maximum effect,because the Congress has expressly declared that state authorityshould continue adjacent to federal regulation.     

The Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board: A View of Its Role One Year Later

The secretary of the Treasury, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the comptroller general established the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB) at the end of 1990. The Board recommends accounting principles for the United States government, including those to implement the Chief Financial Officers Act. This article reviews some results of research conducted by the Board during the past year and presents a conceptual framework for understanding the role of the Board and how it differs from the roles of FASB and GASB.     

Implementation of Aged Care Policy in the Australian Federal System

In 1983–84 the Commonwealth and state governments trialled the introduction of the geriatric assessment team (GAT) program. Twenty years of Australian Health Ministers' Conference (AHMC)¹ minutes and records (1969–88), files within the Queensland and Commonwealth health departments (1983–88) and interviews with major stakeholders revealed that implementation can extend over many years and can require a confluence of factors for a policy idea to come to fruition. This article examines the dynamics involved in the implementation of the GAT policy and reveals that expert advisers played a central role in policy innovation and implementation and that the federal system could both obstruct and facilitate policy implementation. While there was evidence of delay and conflict, the Australian states through their expert advisers were significant contributors to the development and implementation of aged care policies. Many of the intergovernmental relations were often characterised by a high degree of cooperation at least at the officer to officer level. The 'coercive' nature of the federal system may need to be revisited.     

官僚体制的内在缺陷:新公共管理视角的分析

古典官僚制理论认为 ,官僚体制所体现的工具理性与价值理性的冲突是官僚体制自身不可超越的内在困境。在新公共管理的视角下 ,官僚体制不但存在工具理性与价值理性的冲突 ,在工具理性的内部也可能产生冲突 ,它所带来的效率也只是一种相当有限的机械效率。其内在缺陷就是缺乏竞争效率和创新机制 ,在政策制定和公共利益认定上偏离了原定的目标     

The Supreme Court and the Federal System: Federalism from Warren to Burger

The question of the relation of the states to the federal governmentis the cardinal question of our constitutional system. It cannotbe settled by the opinion of any one generation, because itis a question of growth, and each successive stage of our politicaland economic development gives it a new aspect, makes it a newquestion.¹