Public budgeting is inherently political. Using a “power struggles” theme to examine the dynamics of budgeting, Rubin’s classic text shines a bright light on the political jockeying between interest groups, parties, officials, policymakers, and the public. Updated throughout, the seventh edition explores the impact of the Great Recession, the joint federal–state unemployment insurance program, local level bankruptcies, and state takeovers, as well as the politics of successful tax increases in the midst of recession. Expert at explaining budgeting changes over time, Rubin sets issues like the federal deficit and health care expenditures in political and comparative context. And like prior editions, the book draws examples from all levels of government, emphasizing the relationship among them. Analyzing each strand of the decision-making process, Rubin shows the extraordinary coordination involved in passing a budget and achieving accountability.

NEW TO THIS EDITION:

• New examples and significant updating throughout include:
  • completely rewritten Tax and Expenditure chapters;
  • new trends in openness, downplaying the importance of secrecy;
  • discussion of spending controls, from reductions in earmarks to eliminating emergency supplementals for funding wars;
  • exploration of the relationship between formal rules and informal adaptations;
  • coverage of the politics of cost estimation;
  • examination of the use and misuse of the term "unsustainability"; and
  • 15 new mini cases.
• New graphics and illustrations help readers visualize budgeting trends and concepts.
• Suggestions for useful websites allow readers to not only see the data on which the text is based, but question conclusions, explore key themes, and manipulate data.

KEY FEATURES:

• The book provides something for everyone, from the budget newbie to the seasoned professional, from a political scientist to a policy analyst or public administrator, from a legislator to a budget officer, from a journalist to a citizen activist.
• More than 50 mini-cases provide glimpses into the real world of public budgeting.

NEW TO THIS EDITION:

• New examples and significant updating throughout include:
  • completely rewritten Tax and Expenditure chapters;
  • new trends in openness, downplaying the importance of secrecy;
  • discussion of spending controls, from reductions in earmarks to eliminating emergency supplementals for funding wars;
  • exploration of the relationship between formal rules and informal adaptations;
  • coverage of the politics of cost estimation;
  • examination of the use and misuse of the term "unsustainability"; and
  • 15 new mini cases.
• New graphics and illustrations help readers visualize budgeting trends and concepts.
• Suggestions for useful websites allow readers to not only see the data on which the text is based, but question conclusions, explore key themes, and manipulate data.

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1. The Politics of Public Budgets
   1. What Is Budgeting?
   2. Governmental Budgeting
   3. The Meaning of Politics in Public Budgeting
   4. Budgetary Decision Making
   5. Microbudgeting and Macrobudgeting
   6. Summary and Conclusions
   7. Useful Websites
2. Revenue Politics
   1. Raising Taxes
   2. The Politics of Protection
   3. Tax Reform
   4. Summary and Conclusions
   5. Useful Websites
3. The Politics of Process
   1. Budget Process and the Characteristics of Public Budgeting
   2. Macro and Micro Politics
   3. Designing Process to Achieve Policy and Political Goals
   4. Variation between and among Federal, State, and Local Governments
   5. Summary and Conclusions
   6. Useful Websites
4. The Dynamics of Changing Budget Processes
   1. Overview
   2. Federal Budget Process Changes
   3. Changes in Budget Process at the State Level
   4. Changes in Budget Process at the Local Level
   5. Summary and Conclusions
   6. Useful Websites
5. Expenditures: Strategies, Structures, and the Environment
   1. Strategies
   2. Structure
   3. The Environment
   4. Strategy, Structure, and Environment Combined: The Medicare Example
   5. Summary and Conclusions
   6. Useful Websites
6. The Politics of Balancing the Budget
   1. Balance as a Constraint
   2. Multiple Actors, Ideologies, and Deficits
   3. The Environment, Unpredictability, and Deficits
   4. Increasing Stress between Payer and Decider
   5. The Politics of Deficits: The Federal Level
   6. The Politics of Deficits: States
   7. The Politics of Balance in Cities
   8. Summary and Conclusions
   9. Useful Websites
7. Budget Execution: The Politics of Adaptation
   1. Tools for Changing the Budget
   2. Summary and Conclusions
   3. Useful Websites
8. Budget Implementation and Control
   1. The Discretion-Abuse-Control Cycle
   2. Discretion and Control: The Politics of Finding Waste, Fraud, and Abuse
   3. Summary and Conclusions
   4. Useful Websites
9. Budgetary Decision Making and Politics
   1. Real-Time Budgeting
   2. A Comparison of the Decision-Making Streams
   3. Common Themes
   4. Reconceptualizing Reform
   5. Avenues for Research
   6. Summary and Conclusions
   7. Useful Websites

Irene Rubin (BA, Barnard College; MA, Harvard; PhD, University of Chicago) is Professor Emerita of Public Administration at Northern Illinois University. Her teaching, research, and writing have focused on public budgeting and qualitative research design and methods. Recent research includes work on the relationship between executive budgeting and fiscal health, and on long-term budgeting for entitlements. Her books on budgeting include Balancing the Federal Budget: Eating the Seed Corn or Trimming the Herds? and Class, Tax, and Power: Municipal Budgeting in the United States. A former editor of Public Budgeting and Finance and Public Administration Review, she has also done editing projects for GFOA and the American Water Works Association. An activist, teacher, researcher, and author, she is the recipient of many awards, including the Aaron Wildavsky Award for lifetime achievements in scholarship in public budgeting and a Fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC.