Politics & Budgeting

1. Politics & Budgeting “Shaking The Money Tree”

2. Public Budgeting • Reform origins • Process • Executive budget • Budget cycle • Technique (Budget as a set of tools & methods managers use to enhance their agency’s efficiency & effectiveness) • Politics

3. Politics & Budgeting • Totally different from traditional, technique‑oriented, approaches to public budgeting • Rooted in the “behavioral revolution” which swept post WWII American social science • Began with Aaron Wildavsky, THE POLITICS OF THE BUDGETARY PROCESS

4. Politics & Budgeting: Two Components • Descriptive - how budgeting is “really done” • Normative - how budgeting should be done

5. Politics & Budgeting: Descriptive • Managers do not engage in extensive studies, calculations, etc. when deciding how much to request/approve • Managers do use “aids to calculation” when deciding how much to request/approve

6. Descriptive, cont. • Managers do engage in explicitly political (not necessarily partisan) maneuvering, or strategies, to enhance the likelihood that their agency’s requests are favorably received by decision makers

7. Aids To Calculation • Experience: get an activity started, then make adjustments • Simplify: use simple indicators in lieu of complex notions • Satisficing: find a “good enough” solution, then stop worrying • Incrementalism: focus on changes to last year’s budget, not on the entire request

8. Incrementalism: Two Key Concepts & An Assumption • Two Key Concepts • Fair Share: an agency can expect to receive (roughly) the same % of the government’s total budgetary outlays from year to year • Base: an agency can expect that its programs will be carried on at roughly their current level • The Assumption • All other things being equal

9. Incrementalism: Implications • Budgetary fights take place over changes to fair share &/or base, not over total size of request • Major transformations may occur, but they take place over a long period of time

10. Strategies: Shaking the Money Tree • Ubiquitous: found everywhere & at all times • Contingent: used to defend &/or expand base, thus are used only under particular circumstances

11. Ubiquitous Strategies • Clienteles: find, serve, expand, secure feedback from, etc. • Develop good political “antennae” • Advisory committees • Avoid “capture” • Be aware of fads, spending &/or cutting moods

12. Ubiquitous Strategies, cont. • Build & maintain good relationships with legislature • Staff • Deference • Honesty • Responsiveness

13. Contingent Strategies: Defensive • What: Protecting the base budget • Examples • Cut the popular program • “You choose” • Alter form • Shift blame

14. Defensive Strategies, cont. • More examples • All or nothing • Cut less visible programs (legislators like to do this!) • And many others

15. Contingent Strategies: Offensive • What: “Growing” The Base Budget • Examples • “Old stuff” • Rounding • “Look ma, no hands” • Aim high, take less

16. Offensive Strategies, cont. • More examples • Spend to save • Profit • Crisis, national defense, etc. • Temporary programs • The “camel’s nose” (the wedge) • And many others

17. Politics & Budgeting: Normative • Managers should use aids to calculation & political strategies • Human beings have only limited rationality • Public budgeting takes place in an explicitly democratic political context. Overly focusing on the rational management approach can facilitate the growth of an overly-powerful, unresponsive bureaucracy.

18. Politics & Budgeting: Normative • But, the critics respond • Efficient & effective government is also in the public interest • Wildavsky & his followers focus too much on a narrow set of evidence • Changing times • Better training, techniques • Politicization comes & goes