Public Budgetary Process

Abstract

An analytic framework is proposed to assess budgets across a series of dimensions, including whether it instills aggregate fiscal discipline, facilitates strategic prioritization of expenditures, and encourages effective and efficient use of budgeted resources, offering budgetary stability. The process should be transparent and timely and support public awareness and participation. This framework evaluated the U.S. budget, considering both areas of systematic inefficiency while reviewing the history of budget reforms. When fiscal policies and medium-term budgetary objectives are debated in Congress, budget strategies and policies are "owned" more widely. However, more active participation by the legislature runs the risk that fiscal discipline deteriorates. In addition, ethical codes within public budgeting demonstrate the need for a professional ethic that fosters an expanded sense of role responsibility. The report asserts that responsible budgeting decisions must be tied to understanding how administrative activities affect collective welfare. Instead, priority setting in the federal bureaucracy resembles the market situation of nineteenth-century capitalism where aggressive "policy entrepreneurs", unequal in talent and resources, struggle to build and sustain support for their programs. Finally, the competition between policies is both reflected in and promoted by the budgetary process.