TY - JOUR
T1 - Rules and Flexibility in Public Budgeting
T2 - The Case of Budget Modernisation in Australia
AU - Francesco, Michael Di
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Institute of Public Administration Australia.
PY - 2016/6/1
Y1 - 2016/6/1
N2 - This paper explores the features of public budgeting that make it resistant to efforts to balance central oversight and situational flexibility. Its aim is to help explain why systemic efforts at budget modernisation in the name of 'devolution' may have failed to deliver expanded budget flexibility. After defining flexibility, and briefly surveying how it can be inhibited by budget practices using the example of collaboration, the paper applies a taxonomy of general 'budget rules' to illustrate the trade-offs between control and flexibility. It uses an analysis of budget reform in the Australian federal government over the last 30 years to identify a key set of 'legacy reforms' - all intended primarily to enable budget flexibility - to show how their design and redesign were purposed as modification to the general rules, and how, ultimately, they were constrained by them. This paper explores the features of public budgeting that make it resistant to efforts to balance central oversight and situational flexibility. It applies a taxonomy of general 'budget rules' to illustrate the trade-offs between control and flexibility using an analysis of budget reform in the Australian federal government over the last 30 years.
AB - This paper explores the features of public budgeting that make it resistant to efforts to balance central oversight and situational flexibility. Its aim is to help explain why systemic efforts at budget modernisation in the name of 'devolution' may have failed to deliver expanded budget flexibility. After defining flexibility, and briefly surveying how it can be inhibited by budget practices using the example of collaboration, the paper applies a taxonomy of general 'budget rules' to illustrate the trade-offs between control and flexibility. It uses an analysis of budget reform in the Australian federal government over the last 30 years to identify a key set of 'legacy reforms' - all intended primarily to enable budget flexibility - to show how their design and redesign were purposed as modification to the general rules, and how, ultimately, they were constrained by them. This paper explores the features of public budgeting that make it resistant to efforts to balance central oversight and situational flexibility. It applies a taxonomy of general 'budget rules' to illustrate the trade-offs between control and flexibility using an analysis of budget reform in the Australian federal government over the last 30 years.
KW - Australian Department of Finance
KW - Flexibility
KW - Public budgeting
KW - Rules
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84930260582&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/1467-8500.12156
DO - 10.1111/1467-8500.12156
M3 - Article
SN - 0313-6647
VL - 75
SP - 236
EP - 248
JO - Australian Journal of Public Administration
JF - Australian Journal of Public Administration
IS - 2
ER -