政府再造的财政意蕴及其对我国的启示

政府再造理论意蕴深远,从组织再造、公共服务绩效改善到人力资源管理制度更新等,其主旨是将企业家精神引入公共部门,建立弹性化的、具有应变力和新精神的政府组织,藉以全面提升国家竞争力。政府再造的理论对于各国财政预算制度改革具有深远的影响。企业化预算、新绩效基础预算等以结果为导向的预算方法,可为我国财政预算制度创新提供有益的思路,进而推动我国公共财政制度框架的建立与完善。     

Participatory Budgeting in Germany – A Review of Empirical Findings

Participatory budgeting (PB) is one of the most popular democratic innovations worldwide. PB is connected with high stakes regarding mobilizing political inactive citizens, efficient and effective budgetary policy as well as positive effects on citizens (e.g., civic education, democratic attitudes). However, in many Western countries empirical evidence for such benefits is scarce. This also holds for Germany. Since the conduction of PB demands financial and personnel resources, a thorough evaluation is necessary. This article systematically summarizes the current state of research to make the literature on PB in Germany accessible to international scholars as well as political and administrative practitioners. It focusses on the context (which municipalities conduct PB and why), process (role of local administration and council, participation, deliberation), and outcome/impact dimension (outcomes and impact on policies and citizens). To conclude, further research venues are briefly outlined, followed by an outlook on PBs future and practical implications.     

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.     

Public Financial Management Systems and Countries' Governance: A Cross‐Country Study

The objective of this study is to explore whether a relationship exists between public financial management (PFM) systems and expert perceptions of countries' governance in an international cross‐country study. We examine the extent to which variations in accounting, budgeting and auditing practices are associated with governance in a sample of 97 countries that represent different levels of development, analysing the differences between countries classified into factor, efficiency and innovation‐driven economies. Our concept of governance perception includes three dimensions: accountability, government effectiveness and corruption. We find that countries with a higher level of economic development show, on average, more sophisticated PFM systems characterized by the presentation of accrual‐based financial statements, the application of value for money audits and higher budget transparency. When analysing the sub‐samples of countries according to the level of economic development, we find that countries with similar governance perception scores show different patterns of PFM practices, suggesting that there is no one‐size‐fits‐all approach. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Rules and Flexibility in Public Budgeting: The Case of Budget Modernisation in Australia

This paper explores the features of public budgeting that make it resistant to efforts to balance central oversight and situational flexibility. Its aim is to help explain why systemic efforts at budget modernisation in the name of ‘devolution’ may have failed to deliver expanded budget flexibility. After defining flexibility, and briefly surveying how it can be inhibited by budget practices using the example of collaboration, the paper applies a taxonomy of general ‘budget rules’ to illustrate the trade‐offs between control and flexibility. It uses an analysis of budget reform in the Australian federal government over the last 30 years to identify a key set of ‘legacy reforms’ – all intended primarily to enable budget flexibility – to show how their design and redesign were purposed as modification to the general rules, and how, ultimately, they were constrained by them.     

论政府年底突击花钱现象的制度原因与对策

随着我国财政收入的持续增长,公众对自身所享受的公共服务与政府财政支出之间的关系愈加关注。而近年来屡屡见诸报端的"年底突击花钱"现象成为国人质疑的焦点。究其根源,既有预算编制技术的原因,也包括经济高速增长所带来的不确定性以及预算监督机制的缺失。因此,解决这一问题需要由内至外的改革,包括推进零基预算与增量预算相结合的编制模式改革,加强人大监督与社会监督的制度建设,并以此次《预算法》的修订为契机,真正构建起对政府权力的制约机制,从而实现我国预算制度的民主化、科学化。     

Do Nasty and Pleasant Surprises Regarding Tax Revenue Explain Spending Drifts? The Case of the Swiss Cantons

This article aims to explain the difference between the expenditure reported in governmental end-of-the-year budgets and the amounts previously forecasted in the approved beginning-of-the-year budgets. We measure how political, financial, and institutional variables affect this spending drift. We focus on two much-debated factors, namely, tax revenue budgeting errors and the stringency of fiscal rules. Our econometric approach uses a panel based on the 26 Swiss cantons covering the period of 1980 to 2011. Results suggest that stringent fiscal rules discourage budget overruns, whereas underestimating tax revenue—i.e., a budgetary “pleasant surprise”—offers the opportunity for some overspending.     

绩效预算法律问题研究

实行绩效预算是20世纪80年代以来西方主要发达国家推行政府预算改革的新趋向,也是我国解决财政资金使用效率和效益低下问题的制度选择。绩效预算以结果为导向,以绩效评价为关键,以分权为激励,以监督和责任为约束,与投入导向型的传统预算制度明显不同。借鉴西方国家绩效预算制度实践的有益经验,我国深入推进绩效预算制度改革依然面临路径依赖、自身局限和制度环境等多个方面的约束。为此,我国应以《预算法》修改为契机,适时嵌入绩效预算制度,通过预算权在政府、权力机关和社会公众之间的优化配置,以绩效评价为核心的专门性制度建设和相关制度的及时跟进,为持续推进绩效预算改革提供有力的法律保障。     

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.     

An Analysis of Institutional and Political Factors Affecting State Capital Expenditure

Abstract

This article examines state government spending patterns for capital projects during the late 1970s and early 1980s as a function of some of the institutional arrangements and procedural characteristics of state legislatures. The analysis is informed by the literature on distributive policymaking, which argues that lawmakers seek to send targetable benefits, such as capital projects, to their constituencies in pursuit of personal electoral benefits. Using a pooled, cross‐sectional time‐series approach, the authors find that states with a large number of seats in the lower chambers of their legislatures devoted a somewhat smaller portion of their state budgets to capital projects than did states with smaller lower chambers, ceteris paribus. Contrary to some log‐rolling models, the number of appropriations bills employed by a legislature seems to discourage capital spending, as does membership turnover in the upper chamber. This indicates that the capital budgeting process is not nearly as dominated by the executive branch as is commonly believed.