Budget Reform and Political Reform

Synonyms

Accountability in the budget process; Budget discipline; Budget documentation; Fiscal rules; Political reform

Definition

“Budget Reform and Political Reform” examines the political nature of the budget process, including the interplay between the agents in the budget exercise, and considers the difficulties and opportunities that the politicization of the budget process provides for conducting meaningful fiscal reform.

Introduction

The budget is an inherently political enterprise. It is susceptible to intrusion from vested interests that are not always immediately evident and is usually the product of a process of negotiation that has evolved over a long period of time. While it may feign the semblance of a neutral process, the budget is the politically driven, subjectively oriented, “financial reflection of what the government intends to do” (Wildavsky 1961).

Therefore, “reforms” and other alternations in the budget process are often characterized by either overt political...