Government Budgeting and Financial Management in Practice: Logics to Make Sense of Ambiguity (Public Administration and Public Policy)

The right turn in U. S. politics has increased conflict over both ends and means in government budgeting and financial management. Overlapping and competing views of the way the world works drive finance officials’ practice. Taking a new look at public financial management that acknowledges the multiple, competing realities, **Government Budgeting and Financial Management in Practice: Logics to Make Sense of Ambiguity** examines transaction cost economics and other small government, managed-by-the-market techniques as the latest reincarnation of public budgeting and financial management orthodoxy. Gerald J. Miller reviews new research on the continuing validity of the political dimension of government finance decisions and the multiple, intensely argued constructions of reality the finance official must make sense of. Miller discusses major advances in interpretive approaches to budgeting and finance and how they dominate writing in the broader field of public administration. He also examines the effects of the explosion of information systems, new budget techniques, nonconventional ways of spending, and new technologies. The book uses a question as the motivating force to understand some facets of today’s government budgeting, finance, and financial management: where do the critical assumptions come from to drive financial management? Miller takes the history of reform, developments in the field and the logics finance officials say they use as sources for these assumptions and examines what they reveal about constructions of the government finance world. Exploring new avenues of financial management thinking, the book discusses ambiguity and interpretations that move the unclear preferences, ends, and goals toward consensus. The author identifies an alternative approach to research that explains important facets of financial management. This approach is drawn directly from practice, events and problems in public organizations and from the creedal bent of many political actors in competition. Cover 1 Title Page 2 Copyright 3 Dedication 5 Contents 6 Preface 18 Contributors 26 1: Socially Constructed Decisions about Public Money 28 2: History of Government Budgeting and Finance Reforms 44 3: The Practice of Government Budgeting and Finance is Interpretation 99 4: Fiscal Policy Impacts in Public Finance 154 5: Conventional Budgeting with Targets, Incentives, and Performance 270 6: Budgeting for Nonconventional Expenditures 316 7: Budgeting Structures and Citizen Participation 381 8: Revenue Regime Change and Tax Revolts 430 9: Debt Management Networks 516 10: Auctioning Off the Farm with Tax Incentives for Economic Development 554 11: Summary 619 Index 643 EBC,Converted Lead author Miller (public affairs, Arizona State U.) and five co-authors address a variety of diverse research topics in the fields of government budgeting and financial management against what has become an ecosystem of conflict and competing viewpoints. They discuss the history of government budgeting and finance reforms, fiscal policy impacts in public finance, conventional budgeting and budgeting for unconventional expenditures, budgeting structures and citizen participation, revenue regime change and tax revolts, debt management networks, and tax incentives for economic development. A summary is included. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) This text covers transaction cost economics as a new dimension of public budgeting and financial management orthodoxy. The author reviews new research on the continuing validity of prevailing theory and the ever present political dimension of government finance decisions