Aimee L. Franklin

Participatory Budgeting in Midwestern States: Democratic Connection or Citizen Disconnection?

What participation mechanisms connect citizens and city officials? Do they produce valued outcomes? Surveys of elected officials suggest that microlevel mechanisms such as direct citizen contact are more valuable in meeting participation goals than are mechanisms focusing on macrolevel concerns. However, there is a disconnect between perceptions about value and the use of mechanisms. State-level participation requirements and a city manager have little effect on the value of a mechanism. These findings raise some questions: why are microlevel participation mechanisms favored, why do some mechanisms have value even though respondents have little experience with them, and why is there a misalignment between participatory goals and the mechanisms used?

Are we All Touching the Same Camel? Exploring a Model of Participation in Budgeting

Theory offers a vast quantity of normative prescriptions concerning citizen participation in budget decisions. Yet cities struggle with this activity and report unsatisfactory outcomes. Why does this occur? It may be because, similar to the parable of the blind men describing the different parts of the camel, the extant literature suggests so many variables but does not integrate what we know to see the whole picture, nor does it eliminate variables having little explanatory value and there has been limited systematic testing of hypotheses in this area. To manage the complexity caused by a multiplicity of variables, the authors test a causal model with four different factors (structure, participants, process, and mechanisms) thought to influence effective citizen participation outcomes on cases of two midwestern cities. In this limited application, the model shows promise for predictive validity.

Serving the Public Interest? Federal Experiences with Participation in Strategic Planning

A clause in the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 instructs federal agencies to “consult with stakeholders during strategic plan development.” This requirement is a type of institutional control designed to ensure access to government operations and to keep government responsive to the public interest. Through structured interviews with representatives of the federal, cabinet-level departments, this research examined agency reactions to the Results Act in four areas: What process did agencies use to develop the strategic plan? Who participated? What mechanisms were used for participation? and What were the impacts of including stakeholders? The results suggest that despite minimal impact on the substantive content of federal agency strategic plans, the consultation requirement may have unintended benefits that, if institutionalized, will make government more responsive to the public interest.

Aligning priorities in local budgeting processes

Citizen participation in local government processes is touted as an effective means to enhance responsiveness and accountability. The topic has received considerable attention in the normative literature, yet there is persistent evidence that citizen participation occurs infrequently and has little influence on decision making. This study compares the perspectives of three different groups of stakeholders: elected officials, administrators, and citizens. Examination of the perspectives of these three groups of actors is important because it provides insight into the relationships between the groups and expectations regarding how input is used and how it influences decisions. Attention to these items can make participation more valuable and can inform other governments as they ponder how to align the priorities of different actors in their budgeting processes.

Practical Experience: Building Bridges Between Science and Practice

This paper uses the Wheel of Science to consider the placement of the four approaches to the study of government identified by Raadschelders (2004). We introduce a Wheel of Practice embedded within the Wheel of Science and analyze how they differ and what this means in terms of a lack of integration. After suggesting ways in which bridges can be built between the two wheels, the paper explicitly considers the contributions of the practical experience approach. We propose using design science and managerial principles in a project geared toward greater theoretical as well as academic and practitioner integration in the quest to improve the study of government.

An Examination of the Impact of Budget Reform on Arizona and Oklahoma Appropriations

Government reform shifts from using the budget as a control mechanism to focusing on how the budget can leverage planning and management tools that emphasize results. This research investigates reform at the state level. First, has the emphasis in the appropriations format changed from a control to more of a planning or performance orientation? Second, what factors explain any change in the level of control exercised through the appropriations process? Through multiple regression analysis, this research finds that Arizona, a reform state, is more likely to have reduced appropriations format control than Oklahoma, a nonreform state. Also, an elected agency head, the number of changes in the head of the agency, the level of reliance on the general fund, and the format received in a prior year are predictors of change.

INVOLVING STAKEHOLDERS IN ORGANIZATIONAL PROCESSES

Who should be included in efforts to develop accountability systems for public organizations? What is the impact of involving various internal and external stakeholders in a collaborative process to determine performance indicators? Involving a variety of participants can result in information that is perceived as being more useful; however, significant groups of stakeholders may be excluded from the collaborative process. The reasons for nonparticipation range from poor timing or oversight to deliberate decisions to forego involvement. This exploratory research suggests that the benefits from a collaborative process of identifying measures of program impact are minimal and the utility of including a large number of participants is questionable. Finding more effective methods to increase the impact and utility of stakeholder involvement may become increasingly important in meeting executive and legislative mandates to determine government performance. The implications for further study are discussed.

The challenge of changing federal management processes: implementation barriers relating to strategic planning and the government performance and results act

Getting the most bang for the taxpayer buck by bolstering federal agency accountability continues to be a political theme in the 21st century. The second round of strategic plan development mandated by Congress in the 1993 Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) was recently completed. This article reports the results of empirical research diagnosing the implementation issues in GPRA requirements. This research reports on the efficacy of this process from the perspectives of agency representatives. Implementation issues are grouped into two broad categories; those associated with the organization’s structure and those concerned with the plan development process. This research suggests that the potential for alignment of key management systems is suspect given that institutionalization has not occurred after nearly five years of reform efforts. Reporting on federal agency efforts provides insight into barriers to and opportunities for improving GPRA implementation processes

Revolving Funds as Budgeting Tools: An Examination of Oklahoma State Agencies

ARE ALL DOLLARS created equal when budgeting for the operations of a state government? Is there a difference in the way in which revenues from a variety of sources are scrutinized and allocated by the legislature? Theorists and practitioners alike agree that the legislature exercises control over agency actions through the budgeting process. Appropriations bills can restrict funding by object code, by program or activity, or by fund. In addition, agency actions can be limited in statutory language or by personnel caps. Although there is wide variation, each state has at least one appropriation from a general revenue fund. Other funds that may be appropriated include capital, rainy day, special cash, federal, revolving, and enterprise or proprietary funds. Oklahoma is a state that has relied extensively on revolving funds throughout its history (Weaver 1940). The first revolving fund was introduced in Oklahoma in 1910 (three years after statehood). From 1934 to 1944, an average of only 34.1 percent of state revenues went to the general revenue fund (Lee 1945). In FY 1999, revolving fund revenues amounted to approximately

Coproduction in the U.S. Department of Defense: Examining How the Evolution of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Expands Non‐Traditional Partner Engagement

640 million (about 26 percent of own-source revenues) for 54 state agencies. Normally, revolving funds operate as “continuing appropriations.” These funds have no Revolving Funds as Budgeting Tools: An Examination of Oklahoma State Agencies