Politics and Public Budget: Agency and Legislative Decision-Making Strategies

Abstract

Institutions of higher education are charged with the educational responsibility of creating a classroom environment, where critical thinking skills are cultivated. This paper focuses on a political science undergraduate course in public budgeting. The course emphasizes and encourages the students to develop creative and critical thinking skills necessary to actively engage in the public administration budget process. Budgets can be analyzed from an economic prism, a management perspective, a historical view and the political process. The goal of this simulation is to replicate the interplay of administrative decision making with congressional politics and experienced at congressional budget hearings. The course is designed around the four phases of the budget cycle; executive preparation; legislative authorization and appropriations; budget implementation; and audits. The simulation focuses on the second stage of the process, the legislative hearings and the personalities, politics, and interactions among administrators and legislators. Since legislative budget hearings are a fluid chess match designed to test the skills and abilities of the participants. The agency budget official’s goals are to match their expertise with the political power of the committee majority and minority party members. The intended result of this course is to prepare the political science and public administration students with the basic theoretical and practical experience necessary to grasp the demands of the legislative budget process. In the final analysis agency budgets are determined by successful political bargaining.