Russian Central Government Budgeting and Public Sector Reform Discourses: Paradigms,Hybrids, and a “Third Way”

ABSTRACT

This study explores how public sector reform discourses are reflected in Russian central government budgeting. Through the lenses of institutional logics, Russian central government budgeting is considered to be a social institution that is influenced by rivaling reform paradigms: Public Administration, New Public Management (NPM), the Neo-Weberian State, and New Public Governance. Although NPM has dominated the agenda during the last decade, all four have been presented in “talks” and “decisions” regarding government budgeting. The empirical evidence illustrates that the implementation of management accounting techniques in the Russian public sector has coincided with and contradicted the construction of the Russian version of bureaucratic governance, which is referred to as the vertical of power. Having been accompanied by participatory mechanisms and a re-evaluation of the Soviet legacy, the reforms have created prerequisites for various outcomes at the level of budgeting practices: conflicts, as in the UK, and hybridization, as in Finland.     

Sustainability as a Measure of Success: Externally Promoted Participatory Budgeting in El Salvador 10 Years Later

This article examines the sustainability of externally promoted participatory budgeting (PB) over more than a decade and, given the results, considers the implications for participatory practice in international development. In 2009, I investigated the continued utilization of PB as introduced through a US‐financed local government development project in post‐war El Salvador. I examined all 28 project municipalities 5 years after the project ended and found limited but important PB sustainability. In 2015, I replicated the study, using the same parameters in the same 28 municipalities, more than 10 years after completion of the project. This article presents the findings of the latter study and compares them with 2009 results. PB continues to be utilized in more than half of the 28 municipalities examined—a striking example of long‐term sustainability—although there is also little continuity of use among individual municipal governments. I conclude that PB is becoming institutionalized, in part because of the initial project. This case of sustainability and institutionalization of PB may allow us to be more optimistic about the potential effects of participation in international development. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

参与式预算与政治生态环境的重构——新河公共预算改革的过程和逻辑

新河的参与式预算为我们提供了一份从体制外自发生长到体制内有机融洽为过程,以民主理财,完善委托代理机制为主要内容,以公众参与为基础,以激活人大机制为目的,以重构政治生态环境为指归的独特的文本.通过对其的解读,试图回答公共预算改革为什么会发生在新河;如何使政府的目标函数与公众的偏好相符合;通过什么样的路径缩短委托代理链;新河预算改革的实际意义和应用价值何在;今后的指归是什么.新河的参与式预算是一个基于公众与政府之间和谐理念而设计出来的制度创新,是对传统公众与政府之间关系的一种变革.通过这样的创新和变革,树立了凡是与公众有关的事情都应让公众知道的思想,提高了预算编制的透明度和参与度,践行了治国的根本.这是一次人大与政府互动关系的良好发端,通过激活人大而对政府实行真正的制衡,是政治生态环境的重构过程,是新河参与式预算的实际意义所在.新河的阳光试验,正在为我国的公共预算改革探路,并为之积累经验,它将成为我国民主政治建设的一个新的起点.     

从泽国镇参与式预算实践看偏好与公共预算效率的实现

公众偏好的显示、转换、集合和统一与公共预算的效率直接相关。浙江省温岭市泽国镇在事关民生的公共基建项目安排上,以协商民主的方式,通过设计精良的程序,为人们提供了一种公民参与预算决策的新技能与新策略,提高了公共预算的效率。     

我国预算民主化建设的现状分析

预算民主原则是指国家预算权力的行使及整个预算过程要按照人民的愿望以民主的程序进行,人民及民意机关能够对其进行监督与控制。我国的预算民主最主要的体现在人民代表大会及其常务委员会通过掌握预算的审查与批准权以及预算监督权而对政府预算活动加以控制。近年来在我国部分地区出现了参与式预算的新形式,但参与式预算在我国的起步晚,其影响力还比较低。文章主要分析人民代表大会在我国预算民主化建设过程中的作用及其问题。     

In participatory budgeting we trust? Fairness,tactics and (in)accessibility in participatory governance

ABSTRACT

Participatory budgeting (PB) is a significant innovation in democracy and local development. PB provides the opportunity for citizens to engage in processes of deliberation and decision-making upon the allocation of public funds. As new critical discourse emerges surrounding this model of local government spending, a significant area warranting investigation concerns how trust, and indeed mistrust, factor into PB. Through an analysis of interviews with residents and Council staff engaged in PB processes in a county in the north of England, we highlight the ways in which issues of trust can impact on participation in these initiatives, and also strengthen relationships between voting delegates, project teams and local government. This paper argues that increasing the perceived accessibility, and reconsidering the inclusion of mass membership groups in PB, might help to create progressive, effective and trustful participation.     

Budget Transparency in Local Governments: An Empirical Analysis

The aim of this paper is to shed additional light on the determinants of budget transparency in local governments. Our work is based on a Likert-type survey questionnaire specifically designed to measure budget transparency in small municipalities. The questionnaire is based on the IMF's revised Code of Good Practices on Fiscal Transparency (2007). Results from 33 Galician municipalities are used to assess its internal consistency and to test a battery of hypotheses on the determinants of budget transparency. While several previous findings of the literature are confirmed, some new results are also obtained.     

Citizen Preference and Resource Allocation: The Case for Participatory Budgeting in Seoul

This article seeks to measure the extent to which the service priorities of citizens of Seoul, South Korea, are reflected in corresponding resource allocations in the city's budget, despite there being virtually no participation by citizens in the budget creation process. We find a less than perfect congruence between budget allocations and citizen preferences at both the city and district level. Given these results, we discuss the potential for participatory budgeting to address discrepancies in resource allocation by focusing on the unique demographic and cultural makeup of Seoul constituencies.     

Priority-based budgeting: An honest broker among municipal functions?

Implemented in over 200 local governments, priority-based budgeting (PBB) reflects a contemporary attempt to systematically determine and implement desired budgetary reallocation. PBB proponents claim it is highly effective in prioritizing governmental programs and aligning budgetary allocation to priorities. However, core municipal functions such as public safety and public works are often impervious to budgetary shocks. Can PBB overcome this to better align budgetary allocations with organizational priorities? This study examines 32 municipal PBB implementers with difference-in-differences analysis; finding a varied effect upon municipal functions that casts doubt on its ability to fully reallocate budgetary resources from low- to high-priority programs.