Public Budgeting in Context: Structure, Law, Reform and Results

摘要

Given the many budget and finance issues that are ever present in our society today, the need to educate students and practitioners on the various nuances of budgetary processes is critical to understanding the need for permanent solutions to budgetary issues. For many years, textbooks such as those by Meyer (1998), Smith and Lynch (5th Edition, 2004), and Lee, Johnson, and Joyce (9th Edition, 2013) have offered a comprehensive examination of public budgeting in the United States. However, Willoughby offers a fresh and more inclusive approach to the subject. She examines public budgeting and fiscal capacity by examining not only governmental structures in the United States, but various countries around the globe (Australia, Brazil, Guatemala, India, Italy, and Tanzania). The book has twelve stand-alone chapters that include: an overview of public budgeting; detailed discussions of budgeting at the local and state level; executive leadership and the budget; legislative budget authority; judicial influences on the budget; budget foundations in other countries; budgets as impacted by the bureaucracy, citizens, and the media; funding the budget; and the impact of government spending on select policy areas. One of the many assets to the book is the inclusion of other countries, a more detailed assessment of the many things that affect the budget and the budgeting process, and a list of provocative questions that the reader can ponder with each chapter.