Parliaments and the Budget Process: Eight Trends

Parliaments and the Budget Process: Eight Trends

Involvement in setting public budgets and overseeing their implementation has traditionally been a key power of parliaments, alongside law-making and control of the executive. Yet, although budgeting is a core parliamentary function, essential features of public budgeting and parliaments’ role in the budgetary cycle – ranging from initial discussions about the overall shape and balance of the public budget to the scrutiny of public accounts – have been subject to rapid and often far-reaching change in many countries. The present paper highlights eight trends in public budgeting and discusses their implications for parliaments. These trends include efforts aimed at improved i sustainability; ii information; iii integration; iv equity; v transparency; vi oversight and accountability; vii inclusiveness; and viii international coordination. Taken together, these eight trends have the potential of transforming the manner in which parliaments engage in public budgeting.

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  • The following selected references may help interested readers to gain further insights into the changing nature of parliamentary involvement in public budgeting
  • Lienert, I. (2005) Who Controls the Budget: The Legislature or the Executive? (Washington, D. C.: IMF Working Paper).
  • OECD Journal on Budgeting
  • Stapenhurst, R. et al. (eds) (2008) Legislative Oversight and Budgeting: A World Perspective (Washington, D. C.: World Bank, WBI Development Studies).
  • Wehner, J. (2010) Legislatures and the Budget Process: The Myth of Fiscal Control (New York: Palgrave).