Summing up the thinking of twenty social action groups and various independent economists, this new volume shows how federal programs in many areas can be improved without increasing the public debt.

Explicates political economy factors that have brought about greater transparency and participation in budget settings across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. This title presents the strategies, policies, and institutions through which improvements can occur and produce change in policy and institutional outcomes.

Performance Based Budgetingis the next volume in the ASPA Classics series. It covers the most influential, paramount research articles published on public budgeting and finance. The book will surely be of great interest and use to anyone concerned with public budgeting, and anyone enrolled in, or teaching, a course on this topic in an MPA program or a doctoral program in public administration, public affairs, political science, or economics/public finance.

During the height of the civil rights movement, Blacks were among the most liberal Americans. Since the 1970s, however, increasing representation in national, state, and local government has brought about a more centrist outlook among Black political leaders. Focusing on the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), Katherine Tate studies the ways in which the nation’s most prominent group of Black legislators has developed politically. Organized in 1971, the CBC set out to increase the influence of Black legislators. Indeed, over the past four decades, they have made progress toward the goal of becoming recognized players within Congress. And yet, Tate argues, their incorporation is transforming their policy preferences. Since the Clinton Administration, CBC members—the majority of whom are Democrats—have been less willing to oppose openly congressional party leaders and both Republican and Democratic presidents. Tate documents this transformation with a statistical analysis of Black roll-call votes, using the important Poole-Rosenthal scores from 1977 to 2010. While growing partisanship has affected Congress as a whole, not just minority caucuses, Tate warns that incorporation may mute the independent voice of Black political leaders.

Government is broke. The 2004 federal deficit is the highest in U.S. history. The states have suffered three years of record shortfalls. Cities, counties, and school districts are laying off policemen and teachers, closing schools, and cutting services. But the fiscal pain won't go away, and the bankrupt ideologies of left and right offer little guidance.The Price of Government presents a radically different approach to budgeting -- one that focuses on buying results for citizens rather than cutting or adding to last year's spending programs. It advocates consolidation, competition, customer choice, and a relentless focus on results to save millions while improving public services.

The thoroughly updated and expanded Second Edition of Greg G. Chen, Lynne A. Weikart, and Daniel W. Williams’ Budget Tools: Financial Methods in the Public Sector brings together scores of exercises that will take students through the process of public budgeting, from organizing data through analysis and presentation. This thoroughly revised text has been restructured – it now has 30 compact modules to focus on individual skills and enhance flexibility, and is reorganized to cover more straightforward skills early in the book and more complex tools later on. Using budgets from all levels of government as well as from nonprofit organizations, the authors give students the opportunity to work with real budgeting data to cover a range of topics and skills.Budget Tools provides instruction in the techniques and implementation of budgeting skills at a granular level to support a wide range of approaches to teaching the subject.

Local budgeting serves important functions that include setting priorities, planning, financial control over inputs, management of operations and accountability to citizens. These objectives give rise to technical and policy issues that require open discussion and debate. The format of the budget document can facilitate this debate. This book provides a comprehensive treatment of all aspects of local budgeting needed to develop sound fiscal administration at the local level. Topics covered include fiscal administration, forecasting, fiscal discipline, fiscal transparency, integrity of revenue administration, budget formats, and processes including performance budgeting, and capital budgeting.