The Politics of Public Budgeting: Getting And Spending, Borrowing And Balancing

As Irene Rubin has shown convincingly in past editions, public budgeting is inherently political. Short-term partisan goals overrun long-term public interest and democratic processes, eroding institutional and public capacity to address collective problems. By presenting federal, state, and local budgeting within a comparative framework, Rubin's classic text gives explicit attention to issues of federalism, always sensitive to the power struggles between the different branches and levels of government. How much control is exerted from above and what degree of autonomy can be found at each level of government? What kind of influence do elected officials wield over government priorities? How do we resolve the tension between patronage, pork, and tax breaks necessary for reelection and the requirements of balance, technical efficiency, and prioritization?

Analyzing each strand of the decision-making process, Rubin shows the extraordinary coordination involved in passing a budget and achieving some level of accountability. By moving beyond the simplistic and rigid "executive proposal and legislative disposal" cycle other books follow, Rubin explores shifts in power over time and explains decisions that do not always flow in a linear fashion.

A thorough revision at every turn, updates include:


• the return to massive deficits at the federal level, requiring more attention on the relationship between budget process and outcomes
• the resurgence of secrecy in recent years, looking at how and why the level of transparency decreases at some times and increases at others the implications of 9/11, exploring the impact of funding wars in Afghanistan and Iraq
• the difficulty of getting Inspectors General sufficient independence and cooperation to implement their work, showing how these officials are "straddling a barbed wire fence"
• over twenty new minicase studies