No portion of this book may bereproduced, by any process or technique, without theexpress written consent of the publisher.Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2002023030ISBN:1–56720
BUDGET THEORY IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR Aman Khan W Bartley Hildreth Editors QUORUM BOOKS Budget Theory in the Public Sector BUDGET THEORY IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR Edited by Aman Khan and W Bartley Hildreth QUORUM BOOKS Westport, Connecticut • London Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Budget theory in the public sector / edited by Aman Khan, and W Bartley Hildreth p cm Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN 1–56720–281–0 (alk paper) Budget Finance, Public I Khan, Aman II Hildreth, W Bartley, 1949– HJ2005.B7978 2002 352.4'8—dc21 2002023030 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available Copyright 2002 by Aman Khan and W Bartley Hildreth All rights reserved No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2002023030 ISBN: 1–56720–281–0 First published in 2002 Quorum Books, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc www.quorumbooks.com Printed in the United States of America TM The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984) 10 Dedicated to Marcia Lynn Whicker Contents Preface ix Acknowledgments xv Budget Theory for a New Century Lance T LeLoup Early Budget Theory: The Progressive Theory of Public Expenditures Julia Beckett 22 The Separation of Powers Principle and Budget Decision Making Thomas P Lauth 42 Nonconventional Budgets: Interpreting Budgets and Budgeting Interpretations Gerald J Miller 77 A Multiple Rationality Model of Budgeting: Budget Office Orientations and Analysts’ Roles Katherine G Willoughby 104 The Principal-Agent Model and Budget Theory John Forrester 123 Responsibility Budgeting and Accounting Reform L.R Jones and Fred Thompson 139 viii Contents Budget Theory for Public Administration and Public Administrators Gerasimos A Gianakis and Clifford P McCue 158 The Theory of the Public Sector Budget: An Economic Perspective Merl Hackbart and James R Ramsey 172 10 Budgets as Portfolios Aman Khan 188 11 Punctuated Equilibrium: An Agenda-Based Theory of Budgeting Meagan M Jordan 202 12 The Impact of Agency Mission on Agency Budget Strategy: A Deductive Theory Marcia Lynn Whicker and Changhwan Mo 216 13 Budgeting for Outcomes Lawrence L Martin 246 14 Philosophy, Public Budgeting, and the Information Age Thomas D Lynch and Cynthia E Lynch 261 Selected Bibliography 281 Index 287 About the Contributors 293 Preface Public budgeting, as a field of study, has grown tremendously in recent years both in form and substance With such growth comes a need to have a coherent theory or body of theories that allows one to understand the field, its essential core that guides its development, and its scope for dealing with real world problems V.O Key recognized this need in 1940 when he wrote his now famous piece, “The Lack of a Budgetary Theory.” Key tried to address the issue of public budgeting not having a theory of its own by offering a microeconomic solution to the problem, one that would increase allocative efficiency of government He based his theory on the same rationale that guided the economists to search endlessly for a function that would improve the welfare of society within the broader schemes of Paretian principle In a similar vein, Verne Lewis (1952) tried to explain how the traditional microeconomic theory, in particular the concept of marginal utility, could be used to determine the relative value of a good or service to justify resource allocation that in the aggregate would improve social welfare Attempts by other economists, such as Arthur Smithies (1955), were not much different from those offered by the mainstream welfare economists But, as Wildavsky (1961) reminds us, budgeting is more than allocating the scarce resources between X and Y activities; it is about meeting the conflicting needs of a society by bringing about compromises in the political marketplace through incremental adjustment(s) in budget allocation Not only that, as Mosher (1954) would point out, it is a measure of bureaucratic behavior and administrative competence Others would argue that it is not necessary to have a single theory of budgeting but