Week 2: Politics and Dynamics of Public Budgeting
• Budgeting: political or technical?
• The “baseline”
• Rubin’s model of budgetary decision making p.30
• Actors in the budget process
• Mini-case
• Budget process--goals, culture, characteristics
• Student issues from readings
• Preview week 3
Public Administration “Dichotomy” Debate
Classical Public Administration: 1880’s - 1930’s
• Focus on efficiency of large organizations
• Search for scientific principles of administration
• Expertise, not politics
• Left out concern for politics, values, ethics
Behavorial: 1940s - 1960s
• Dichotomy questioned
• From efficiency to effectiveness
• Human element, behavior, decision making in
organizations
• Led to new kind of science of administration
• Continued to ignore politics
Public Administration “Dichotomy” Debate (cont.)
The New Public Administration: 1970s • No dichotomy
• Try to bring managerial and political values together
• Two branches
– Public policy
• looked at politics in policy but not in administration
• PA moved to Business Schools
– Political management
• the governance function of public administration
• define the role of public managers in political system
Budgeting as Political
Budget (document)
 scope of government
 redistribution of wealth
 priorities
 reflects relative power
 reflects public
consensus
 accountability to public
Budgeting (process)
 preparing and
defending requests
 strategy--what to
reveal, what to conceal
 roles in process--who
has power
Budgeting as Technical?
 estimating revenues
 estimating costs (benchmarks)
 knowing all rules and constraints





spending limitations -- legal
spending requirements
limits on borrowing
need for public referenda (spending and revenues)
different funds
 presenting information
 accounting/allocating (baseline, one-time)
Budget Management: political or technical?
• Internal allocation
– how much is needed?
– aligning incentives
• Staying within budget
• Reallocation
• Determining and using reserves
• Publication -- how much to reveal
• Transfers among funds
• Year end strategies
Political v Technical
• Budget as a Document
___% technical
___% political
• Budgeting as a Process
___% technical
___% political
• Budget Management
___% technical
___% political
The “Baseline” Budget
How to compute it:
 Current year initial budget
 Current year revised budget
 Current year expenditures
 Current services level adjusted forward (inflation,
caseload)
 Current law
 Current year budget less one-time
 CSUS case study: Program of Dance
Rubin’s Model of Budgetary Decision Making
– Environment
– Process
– Strategies
– Outcomes
Rubin’s Model of Budgetary Decision Making
• Environment
– Affects outcomes directly
– Affects strategies
– Affects process
• Process
– Affects outcomes directly
– Affects strategies
• Strategies
– Affects outcomes directly
– Affects process
Actors in Public Budgeting
• Chief Executive
• Executive branch chiefs
• Control agencies
– executive
– legislative
• Legislators
• Interest groups
• Public
Mini-Case -- Indian Health Program
• What is the committee chair trying to accomplish?
• Why is the Bureau Chief in a difficult position?
• What power does the committee chair have over the
Assistant Secretary and the Bureau Chief?
• What power does the Assistant Secretary have over the
Bureau Chief?
• Did the Assistant Secretary do a good job of responding?
• Did the Bureau Chief do a good job of responding?
Budget Process
• Designed to meet organizational goals
• Reflects organizational culture
• Variables
– players
– rules/procedures/documents/timelines
– balance of executive/legislative power
– degree of centralization/coordination
– top-down/bottom-up
– openness to internal members
– openness to external community
Design a Budget Process for a School District
Units:
• 4 elementary schools
• 2 middle schools
• 1 high school
Players:
• superintendent/staff
• school board
• 7 principals
• 7 PTAs
Process Variables:
• roles of various players
• authority/balance of power
• rules/procedure
• documents/timelines
• executive v legis power
• degree of centralization
• top down/bottom up
• openness to internal
• openness to external
Preview of Week 3
• Lots of different, but short, readings
– Congressional Budget Office
– Legislative Analysts Office
– Department of Finance
• Think about:
– Differences between State and Federal Processes
– Different roles of LAO, Finance
– In four sample LAO analyses, think about what they are trying to
accomplish
• Guest Speaker from Corrections, LAO, DOF (current)
• Remember first weekly email assignment (sample on web)