Budget Battles Research Articles

Uncovering Budget Battle Practices: A Critical Study of Budget Participation in Indonesia

Purpose: This research aims to analyze the budget battle practices between local government (executive) and Regional People's Representative Council (DPRD or legislative) within the context of plenary sessions in North Toraja Regency. Theoretical framework: The theoretical framework of this article revolves around the concept of budget participation, influenced by the political environment, and inspired by Paulo Freire's ideas. Budget participation involves the engagement of the community in decisions regarding the allocation of public funds, with a normative emphasis on community involvement values. The influence of the political environment and the political will of the government plays a pivotal role in the success of budget participation. Design/methodology/approach: This study adopts a critical paradigm and employs the Habitus Theory as a tool for interpreting research data. The research also utilizes the data collection and reduction procedures outlined by Creswell (2014). The study was conducted in North Toraja Regency and involved ten informants selected through purposive sampling technique. Findings: The research findings reveal several aspects. Firstly, the practice of budgetary battles involves three models: negotiation, holding the Regional Budget Planning (RAPBD) hostage, and intimidation. Secondly, these three behaviors undergo transformation into a homogeneous institutional or group habitus among the actors. Thirdly, this group habitus is deeply internalized by the actors, shaping individual habits that are employed both during plenary sessions and outside the political context within the social realm. Research, Practical & Social implications: The social implications of these findings indicate that the existence of budgetary battle practices involving negotiation, holding the Regional Budget Planning (RAPBD) hostage, and intimidation can impact political dynamics and financial governance at the regional level. In terms of practice, these findings can provide guidance for policymakers at the local level to implement improvements in budgeting mechanisms. Originality/value: The originality of this article lies in its contribution to the understanding of how group habitus influences individual dispositions in budgetary battles. The findings concerning the three types of habitus also offer a novel contribution to the literature. This study provides crucial insights for further research in exploring the phenomenon of budgetary battles and their impact on budget participation within the context of local governance.

Experimenting with Humans and Animals: from Aristotle to Crispr, second edition

Experimenting with Humans and Animals: from Aristotle to Crispr, second edition

Dilemmatic Challenges of Budgeting for Poverty in Local Government in Indonesia

This study aims to identify risk conditions in budgeting inhibiting Local Government when ensuring pro-poor budgeting each year. Qualitative was used in this study, and Semi-structured interviews were conducted with senior managers and local government staff involved with managing pro-poor budgeting. The main findings, first, is the dilemma in determining budgeting priorities in the region, then at the end of the budgeting process in the budget battle that is raised in the expectations. The emerging political risks evolve from maximizing interests by realizing political promises as a form of moral accountability

NASA Funding in Congress: Money Matters

This paper argues that individual members of Congress engage in economic opportunism, voting in the best interests of their constituents based on economic heuristics, when considering space policy legislation. Multivariable logit analysis is conducted on five votes in the House of Representatives to test the hypotheses. The economic opportunism effect is captured in the models by the presence of NASA Centers, relative importance of space industry and NASA procurements. Findings suggest that economic benefits to a member’s constituency can play an important role in legislative voting, particularly when legislation deals with federal aerospace funding, when space policy bills lack over-reaching bi-partisan support. In recent years the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has seen its funding fall prey to partisan budget battles and party line voting, but this was not historically the norm. As we move forward into a future where NASA funding may become more scrutinized and politicized, this paper supports the thesis that individual members of Congress care more about the funds for their constituents than the other aspects of space policy.

DOCUMERICA and the Power of Environmental History

DOCUMERICA and the Power of Environmental History

Making Sense of "Long Wars" — Advice to the US Army

Most military institutions that experience success or failure in war will seek to understand their recent history so they can make sense of it, and learn intelligently from it. The process is never easy or straightforward; indeed, it is often fraught. Those inside the institution have positions and reputations to defend; those outside it--often anxious to level critiques--may not have enough knowledge to offer sophisticated and informed analyses, or may be so determined to build a good story around goats and heroes they miscast the events and offer far more heat than light. Analyses of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have come in every possible form: journalists' accounts were first on the scene, but they were followed quickly by those of think-tank analysts, academics, defense intellectuals, official historians, and memoir writers. Each of these has its own weaknesses and strengths. Many have echoed the frustration felt by the American people--frustration driven by a belief that while the US seemed to invest extraordinary amounts of time, blood, and treasure in these campaigns, we have little to show for them. The US Army had the biggest investment--and thus the biggest stake--in the long wars. It is unsurprising, then, that the Army should be the service most buffeted by the experience and the institutional effort to make sense of it. After all, the senior leaders of the US Army must continue to hold the trust and confidence of the American people, and justify the resources invested in the organization. They must learn from and adapt to past experience even as they look forward to a future that arrives with unforgiving speed. They must fight ongoing budget battles, maintain force readiness, keep up with new technologies, plan for new weapons systems, and educate personnel even as they try to process and absorb the recent past. Adding to the difficulty of this task is the fact that, of all the services, the Army may have the greatest challenge when it comes to predicting the future and getting ready for it. In many ways, the Army is the utility infielder of the US military: because it can never be sure exactly what the nation will ask of it, it must be prepared to perform a wide range of tasks well. It must be able to transform itself from Retriever to Rottweiler, and back again, quickly and seamlessly. As an institution, the Army is not averse to introspection and self-analysis. But like all institutions, it is susceptible to the pathologies that stem from cognitive bias and sensitivity to criticism. At one moment senior leaders may ignore that which is painful; the next moment they may over-react to it. Similarly, they may miss moments of success that deserve capture and amplification. At present, the Army seems to be in a phase not dissimilar to the one it entered after Vietnam: it does not study the hard problems and failures deeply enough, and it overlooks and forgets the things that deserve positive acknowledgment and reinforcement. As the Army works through its own analyses of the long wars, and responds to external critiques, it must discern which problems were internal, which were external, and which emerged due to frictions and pathologies along the ever-challenging civil-military fault line. While the Army must understand and take responsibility for the ways it contributed to unsatisfactory outcomes, its leaders must recognize these failings were located inside a broader national security framework that must be addressed comprehensively. Simply put, the Army operates within a civil-military system in which both parties are responsible for failure and success. One can hardly argue, for instance, the flawed assumptions embedded in the Bush 43 decision for regime change in Iraq in 2003 stemmed principally from a failure of strategic thinking inside the Army. One can and should argue senior Army officers might have found more effective ways to ask probing questions about the direction of events, and about the theory of victory operative in the minds of those who were driving the decision for war. …

Cutting through the Rhetoric: The Rise and Fall of Austerity Narratives in Toronto's Budget Battle

Cutting through the Rhetoric: The Rise and Fall of Austerity Narratives in Toronto's Budget Battle

Reagan Reorders the Political Regime: A Historical–Institutional Approach to Analysis of Change

The future of reconstructive presidential leadership is in question. It is increasingly difficult to tear out and replace institutions in today's constraining environment. However, historical–institutional theory suggests that alternative leadership possibilities exist. A reconstructive president may be able to reorder the political regime through application of a multiple modalities of change strategy. This project explores this prospect through study of Ronald Reagan's accomplishments in the budget battles of 1981. It applies a new analytic approach to determine if his well‐known successes can be translated into the historical–institutional conceptual framework. It confirms that previously hypothesized leadership possibilities exist and demonstrates the utility of the new analytic approach to the study of institutional change. Pros and cons of modern reconstructive leadership are illuminated and the new change‐framework is recommended for broader application in presidential studies.

The politics of budget surpluses: the case of China’s Hong Kong SAR

In recent years when many Western economies are facing serious public debt crises and undergoing massive fiscal austerity, China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR)’s experience is quite different as it has achieved successive years of huge budget surpluses and has accumulated an unprecedented level of fiscal reserves. Ironically, the strong budgetary position does not help the Hong Kong government formulate a well-received budget. Despite the huge budget surpluses in recent years the Hong Kong government remains conservative in increasing recurrent expenditure items and chooses to spend billions of dollars on various one-off relief measures and set aside the remaining surpluses in fiscal reserves. However, such a budgetary strategy fails to accommodate rising public demands, and public resentment of the budget has boiled over into waves of social protests. Currently, much of the existing budgetary literature is focused on the politics of budget deficits in Western democracies. This article will make a contribution to the literature by offering an illustrative case study of the politics of budget surpluses. Points for practitioners This article uses the case of Hong Kong to illustrate the political challenges facing policy-makers in a time of huge budget surpluses. For policy-makers, the lesson from the case of Hong Kong is that consistent budget surpluses, similar to recurring budget deficits, will give rise to continuous budget battles. More policy learning is necessary for policy-makers to share the experiences of handling political challenges arising from budget surpluses.

The EU budget battle: Assessing the trade and welfare impacts of CAP budgetary reform

There is a paucity of quantitative impact assessments of the sectorial and macroeconomic impacts of CAP budget reform for EU member states. To fill this gap, the current study employs a sophisticated agricultural variant of the GTAP model to evaluate the recently agreed CAP spending limits for the financial period 2014–2020 as well as a more radical 50% cut to the CAP budget proposed by the UK government. The study incorporates methodological innovation in terms of the modelling of CAP budgetary mechanisms. Furthermore, official EU auditing statistics are employed to (i) greatly improve the existing representation of agricultural support payments in the GTAP benchmark data and (ii) implement a detailed contemporary CAP baseline for member states to capture both the decoupled/coupled split of support payments and the distribution of support across both ‘pillars’.In general, CAP expenditure cuts have muted impacts on EU and world agricultural markets; whereas changes in net transfer payments have implications for real income and macro trade balances in EU member states. This observation is particularly pertinent when assessing conciliatory reductions in the UK rebate in exchange for deeper CAP budget cuts.

Through the Schoolhouse Door: Folklore, Community, Curriculum

Since 1976, when linda buki was placed in charge of Folk Artists in the Schools projects funded by the national endowment for the Arts (neA), this field has grown to immense proportions. unfortunately, though, these proj- ects are often funded through the neA and state arts councils. with dwindling funds, many pro- grams have not survived budget battles.

The body economic: why austerity kills: recessions, budget battles, and the politics of life and death

Politicians have talked endlessly about the seismic economic and social impacts of the recent financial crisis, but many continue to ignore its disastrous effects on human health--and have even exacerbated them, by adopting harsh austerity measures and cutting key social programs at a time when constituents need them most. The result, as pioneering public health experts David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu reveal in this provocative book, is that many countries have turned their recessions into veritable epidemics, ruining or extinguishing thousands of lives in a misguided attempt to balance budgets and shore up financial markets. Yet sound alternative policies could instead help improve economies and protect public health at the same time. In The Body Economic, Stuckler and Basu mine data from around the globe and throughout history to show how government policy becomes a matter of life and death during financial crises. In a series of historical case studies stretching from 1930s America, to Russia and Indonesia in the 1990s, to present-day Greece, Britain, Spain, and the U.S., Stuckler and Basu reveal that governmental mismanagement of financial strife has resulted in a grim array of human tragedies, from suicides to HIV infections. Yet people can and do stay healthy, and even get healthier, during downturns. During the Great Depression, U.S. deaths actually plummeted, and today Iceland, Norway, and Japan are happier and healthier than ever, proof that public wellbeing need not be sacrificed for fiscal health. Full of shocking and counterintuitive revelations and bold policy recommendations, The Body Economic offers an alternative to austerity--one that will prevent widespread suffering, both now and in the future.

The Effects of Sequestration on Indian Health

AbstractThe budget battles have hit the Indian Health Service hard: sequestration forced a 5 percent reduction in funds, followed by an additional 0.2 percent rescission in the recently passed Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act. Exempted from sequestration (and rightly so) were other very important health care programs such as the Veterans Administration Health Programs, the State Children's Health Insurance Programs, and Medicaid. Medicare has been reduced by only 2 percent, with that cut targeted to provider reimbursement so as to avoid a reduction in service to beneficiaries. In March 2013, Representatives Betty McCollum, Tom Cole, and Michelle Lujan Grisham introduced a bill to reduce the impact of sequestration on the IHS to 2 percent (H.R. 1371). This bill was referred to the Committee on the Budget, but to date, there has been no movement on it.Why was the IHS susceptible to sequestration? Why is it considered a “discretionary” line item in the federal budget? Why is there not parity for Indians, whose health status remains far below that of mainstream America? As a matter of legal requirement, social contract, and moral obligation, the United States should fundamentally change how Indian Health is funded.

Looming Federal Budget Battles

With the start of the 2014 federal fiscal year just two weeks away, government funded researchers are bracing for yet another year of shifting budgets and financial uncertainties. In what has become standard practice over the past decades, Congress has run out of time to pass a complete budget through the normal process. Republicans in the House of Representatives have proposed a bill that would avoid a government shutdown on Oct. 1, when the fiscal year starts, and keep the doors open until Dec. 15. But provisions linking the bill to defunding of President Barack Obama’s health care law and its failure to remove across-the-board cuts brought on by budget sequestration make the House proposal unlikely to pass in the Senate. That means the uncertainty is likely to continue for weeks, months, or even longer. Jumping from budget crisis to budget crisis is bad for science, University of California Senior ...

Budget Battles loom in Washington

Budget Battles loom in Washington

Budget Battles Under Way with House, Senate, and the Administration Not on the Same Page

CSA NewsVolume 58, Issue 7 p. 22-23 News & Perspective Budget Battles Under Way with House, Senate, and the Administration Not on the Same Page Karl Glasener, Karl Glasener Director of Science Policy kglasener@sciencesocieties.org 202-408-5382 Search for more papers by this author Karl Glasener, Karl Glasener Director of Science Policy kglasener@sciencesocieties.org 202-408-5382 Search for more papers by this author First published: 11 July 2013 https://doi.org/10.2134/csa2013-58-7-9Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume58, Issue7July 2013Pages 22-23 RelatedInformation

Advocating for the Future of Science on Capitol Hill

Students make great science lobbyists. That was the message from AGU at the annual Science, Engineering, and Technology Congressional Visits Day (SET‐CVD) on 12–13 March. As students, we exist at the intersection of research and education and are an exuberant and visual example of the positive outcomes of funding SET programs. As the future practitioners and beneficiaries of science, we also have a lot at stake. In the midst of current budget battles, it is more important than ever that we take the opportunity to remind our legislators that SET programs play a unique and important role in the education and training of our nation's citizens as well as in the scientific discoveries that benefit society and fuel our economy.

Judicial Integrity and Budget Cuts in the States: Is the Devil in the Details?

Judges and scholars have asserted that many state legislatures may threaten judicial integrity though severe budget cuts. Specifically, state court judges are facing difficult salary cuts as a result of current budget battles, which may be triggered in part by policy conflicts over the public interest between majoritarian legislatures and rights-oriented judges. While Article III of the U.S. Constitution protects federal judges' salaries from budget battles, state constitutional protections are varied, even nonexistent, in a significant number of states. We develop a correlational model of the factors correlated to state constitutional protections of state judges' salaries (N=50), as well as a path analysis of correlates to state spending on courts. We examine possible influences on state constitutional protections of judicial salaries and state spending on courts, such as indicators of state political ideology, socioeconomic condition of the states, and the state court system and conditions of the state judiciary. Our findings and discussion may be of further utility in predicting changes in state constitutional protections of judicial integrity.

In memoriam: Kuan-Teh Jeang, MD PhD (1958–2013)

In memoriam: Kuan-Teh Jeang, MD PhD (1958–2013)

How Much Can We Spend on Research?

Abstract Despite a promise from political leaders to pass a continuing resolution in September that would fund the federal government at current spending levels through March 2013, looming budget battles and sequestration could lead to significant cuts in research funding.