Principles of municipal budgeting? A reexamination of the debate over the principles and proverbs of public administration.

摘要

Over 70 years ago a number of management principles were published that, according to their advocates, had the potential to lead to greater organizational performance and efficiency. Although generally supported, several scholars successfully argued that contradictions and ambiguity among the principles made them nearly impossible to implement in practice. As a result, they have received scant attention and applications of the concept to contemporary public administration have been limited. Nonetheless, various public management organizations recently have developed guidelines to encourage certain activities or decision rules. In particular, a comprehensive set of guidelines to define a good and accepted public budget process for state and local governments was developed in 1998. The purpose of this dissertation is to determine the degree to which local government practices correspond to these guidelines. Extensive and consistent use of the guidelines could indicate that management principles are present in certain aspects of public management. Conversely, general disregard for the guidelines could indicate disconnects between theoretical concepts and practice. Data to address this question is obtained from an original survey submitted to a random sample of municipal budget and finance officials across the United States. Two particular aspects of the framework and budget process are examined---the adoption of financial policies and the development and evaluation of financial options. A review of the survey responses indicates significant use of the guidelines among local governments. However, deviations are present across guidelines and municipalities. As a result, a number of potential explanations are explored that receive support from previous research and comments provided by respondents. Departmental leadership and municipal characteristics such as resources and population appear to explain, at least partially, the degree to which local governments utilize practices consistent with established guidelines. Overall, the study fills a research gap within public budgeting literature, supports the conclusions of previous scholarship, and illustrates the need for additional research on management guidelines, particularly those that address the budget process.