Comparative Public Budgeting

Global Perspectives on Taxing and Spending

Publication Year: 2010

Holistic, comparative analysis of multiple budget systems and contexts. Increasingly, governments must respond to the negative impacts of global economic crises on their revenues to finance needed services, and the collapse of their real industrial and financial-banking sectors. How they respond most effectively is a new study area which demands sharing of lessons between nations on government fiscal policies and performance. Budgeting for and financing of government programs and services vary widely among nations and it is important that we understand the implications of similarities and differences in methods and systems. Only through comparative analysis of public budgeting systems can results be improved in such policy areas as health, education, economic stabilization, and infrastructure development. The current global economic crisis has increased fiscal deficits and the accumulated public debts of most countries. It is especially critical now that lessons from budgeting in particular regional clusters be compared and that policymakers adopt the most relevant and useful ones that are available. In Comparative Public Budgeting, George M. Guess and Lance T. LeLoup examine conditions affecting budget decisions at the national and local levels. They review how nations classify their revenue and expenditure transactions, compare cultural and economic conditions between regions, and examine legal and institutional features that affect public management of budgets. Incorporating the most recent and significant changes in budget policy spanning more than 230 nations including the United States, the Commonwealth countries, and a selected group of European Union members, this book offers a fresh analysis of how cultural, institutional, and political forces determine how countries allocate resources and spend them for programs and policies.

Published by: State University of New York Press

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Facing the multiple challenges of a major global economic contraction and ongoing collapse of both the financial-banking and nonfinancial sectors, government financial policymakers have been called upon as never before to respondeffectively. Super-expansionary fiscal policies have been enacted in the United States, Germany, and elsewhere. These include direct spending for infrastructure, social safety net benefits, and asset purchases/loan guarantees of banking and...

1. COMPARATIVE BUDGETING

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pp. 1-34

Budgeting has come of age in the twenty-first century. As globalization progresses, more information is available about budget processes and practices ofnations around the world. Budgeting continues to be recognized as one of the most critical policymaking processes, reflecting national priorities and previous policychoices. Nearly a generation after the fall of the Berlin wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union, we have seen the creation of new economic and political institutions...

2. BUDGETING IN THE UNITED STATES

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pp. 35-65

The United States finds itself at the beginning of the twenty-first century as the world’s dominant economic and military power. Even though the war in Iraq has shown the limits of U.S. military might and the U.S. economy is increasingly less dominant in the world, American influence remains strong. The United States is influential in budgeting just as it is in entertainment and culture. A. Premchand asserts that in budgeting, “U.S. institutions, systems, and intellectual...

3. COMMONWEALTH COUNTRIES

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pp. 67-93

In this chapter, we examine the budgetary behavior of the former countries of the British Empire known as “Commonwealth” countries. The Commonwealth system uses a similar set of public financial management system rules and offers a unique opportunity to observe the performance of a similar system in many countries of the world, such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the U.K....

4. BUDGETING IN EUROPE AND THE EUROPEAN UNION

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pp. 95-126

Budgeting in Europe provides an important perspective on the global dimensions of taxing and spending. Each of the twenty-seven member states of the European Union (EU) goes through its own national budget process, making critical choices on social security, education, and other priorities. As European nations budget, they do so under a set of constraints on their fiscal balances agreed upon by EU treaty. At the same time, the EU itself as a supranational institution...

5. CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE AND THE FORMER SOVIET UNION

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pp. 127-170

When the CEE/FSU region is examined, the value of comparing budgeting and fiscal management systems and transferring successful examples becomes clearer. In the world of public budgeting, the Soviet system was a hermetic and quite unique means of allocating state resources to programs and projects. Since the “collapse” or “transition,” it has been a veritable fiscal laboratory in which to install reforms from other regions and countries. So, what applicable...

6. INTERNATIONAL BUDGET PROBLEMS AND PRACTICES: Latin America

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pp. 171-206

This chapter considers selected fiscal and budget issues in Latin America. The region is critically important to the rest of the globe in providing comparative lessons on what to do and not do in fiscal management and budgeting. Its current budgetary practices are the product of historical influences from Spain, the United States, advice from multilateral (World Bank, UNDP) and regional institutions (IADB), and home-grown ideas.There are at least four features of the...

7. BUDGET REFORM AND DISSEMINATION OF INFORMATION

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pp. 207-254

This chapter extends the earlier discussion in chapter 5 and elsewhere in the book of budgeting and financial management systems reform. A common fallacy among practitioners and academics alike has been to equate the topic with progress toward achievement of only program or performance-type budgeting. In that “reform” has come to mean this kind of advanced budgeting in the minds of many people, it may have actually worked against the more needed budget...

8.CONCLUSION: Dissemination of Budget Lessons and Innovations

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pp. 255-271

This concluding chapter concentrates on two issues of comparative budgeting and finance. First, is it possible to move toward any kind of general theory of budgeting or are the differences between countries too great? That is, is there a framework or model that can be used to compare budget system design and installation internationally? Second, in this global age, to what extent can innovation and reform in one country be transferred and applied to another country?...

NOTES

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pp. 273-274

REFERENCES

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pp. 275-288

INDEX

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pp. 289-294

E-ISBN-13: 9781438433103
E-ISBN-10: 1438433107
Print-ISBN-13: 9781438433097
Print-ISBN-10: 1438433093

Page Count: 306
Illustrations: 15 tables, 19 figures
Publication Year: 2010

Edition: 1