Legislatures and the Budget Process: The Myth of Fiscal Control

Cover......Page 1
Contents......Page 6
List of Figures and Tables......Page 8
Acknowledgements......Page 9
List of Abbreviations......Page 11
1 Perspectives on Legislative Budgeting......Page 12
1.1 The evolution and decay of fiscal control......Page 14
1.2 Existing theoretical and empirical work......Page 20
1.3 Building on the fiscal institutionalist approach......Page 23
1.4 The structure of the book......Page 27
2 Institutional Foundations of Legislative Control......Page 29
2.1 Amendment powers......Page 31
2.2 Reversionary budgets......Page 39
2.3 Executive flexibility during execution......Page 42
2.4 Legislative organisation and the use of formal powers......Page 50
2.5 Conclusions......Page 52
3 Assessing the Power of the Purse......Page 54
3.1 Variables and data......Page 57
3.2 Constructing the index......Page 62
3.3 A ranking of national legislatures......Page 64
3.4 Conclusions......Page 69
4 Explaining Cross-National Patterns......Page 75
4.1 Exploring the determinants......Page 76
4.2 Empirical analysis......Page 80
4.3 Fixed and variable institutional features......Page 83
4.4 Conclusions......Page 87
5 Legislative Institutions and Fiscal Policy Outcomes......Page 89
5.1 A review of institutionalist hypotheses......Page 90
5.2 Initial results......Page 94
5.3 Further cross-sectional evidence......Page 100
5.4 Conditional electoral budget cycles......Page 108
5.5 Conclusions......Page 112
6 The Promise of Top-Down Budgeting......Page 114
6.1 Sequencing and centralisation revisited......Page 117
6.2 Sweden......Page 120
6.3 South Africa......Page 130
6.4 Conclusions......Page 138
7 Beyond the Myth of Fiscal Control......Page 140
7.1 Diverging trajectories......Page 141
7.2 Shaped by history and current politics......Page 143
7.3 The fiscal cost of legislative power......Page 144
7.4 Taking lower level institutions seriously......Page 147
7.5 Conclusions......Page 151
Appendices......Page 153
Notes......Page 162
Bibliography......Page 171
Index......Page 192