«OECD Journal on Budgeting
Special Issue
The Legal Framework for
Budget Systems
AN INTERNATIONAL
COMPARISON
Volume 4, No. 3
OECD Journal
on Budgeting
Volume 4 – No. 3
ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT
ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION
AND DEVELOPMENT
The OECD is a unique forum where the governments of 30 democracies work together to address the economic, social and environmental challenges of globalisation. The OECD is also at the forefront of efforts to understand and to help governments respond to new developments and concerns, such as corporate governance, the information economy and the challenges of an ageing population. The Organisation provides a setting where governments can compare policy experiences, seek answers to common problems, identify good practice and work to co-ordinate domestic and international policies.
The OECD member countries are: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. The Commission of the European Communities takes part in the work of the OECD.
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This work is published on the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of the Organisation or of the governments of its member countries.
Publié en français sous le titre :
Revue de l’OCDE sur la gestion budgétaire
Volume 4 – n° 3
© OECD 2004
No reproduction, copy, transmission or translation of this publication may be made without written permission. Applications should be sent to OECD Publishing: rights@oecd.org or by fax (33 1) 45 24 13 91. Permission to photocopy a portion of this work should be addressed to the Centre français d'exploitation du droit de copie, 20, rue des Grands-Augustins, 75006 Paris, France (contact@cfcopies.com).
FOREWORD
Foreword
Budget design is a key policy instrument for public management. Budget system laws as an instrument of governance reform play a pivotal role in influencing patterns of public sector behaviour. The relationship between budget design and behavioural incentives is critical to the work of the OECD Working Party of Senior Budget Officials (SBO). Thus the Working Party decided to launch a comparative study of budget system laws in OECD member countries.
This book is composed of four parts. Part I discusses theories of comparative law, constitutions, politics and budget systems. Part II presents a comparison of OECD country legal frameworks for budget systems. Part III examines the question of whether there is an optimum legal framework for the budget system and discusses legal norms for budgeting. Part IV contains case studies for selected OECD countries: Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The study was initiated by the Budgeting and Management Division of the Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate (GOV). Moo-Kyung Jung began work on the study in early 2003. At the same time, Ian Lienert of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was embarking on an identical project, and a partnership was thereby formed for completing the study.
Through the SBO network, comments were provided by officials in national administrations; acknowledgement of the individuals concerned is contained in each country case study. Comments on earlier versions of various parts of this book were given by Professors James Chan (University of Illinois at Chicago, United States), Joanne Kelly (University of Sydney, Australia), Allen Schick (University of Maryland, United States), John Wanna (Griffith University, Australia) and Joachim Wehner (London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom), as well as Professor Emeritus Gabriel Montagnier (University of Lyon-3, France). In addition, comments were received from OECD staff, particularly in the Budgeting and Management Division (notably Alex Matheson, Head of Division, Jón Blöndal, Dirk-Jan Kraan, Michael Ruffner and Joaquin Sevilla) and the OECD Economics Department, and Eivind Tandberg of the Fiscal Affairs Department of the IMF. The authors extend their thanks to all these persons. Any errors are the responsibility of the authors.
This book is published on the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official views of the Organisation or of the governments of its member countries, or of the IMF.
OECD JOURNAL ON BUDGETING – VOLUME 4 – NO. 3 – ISSN 1608-7143 – © OECD 2004 |
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FOREWORD
Authors
Ian Lienert (author) is Senior Economist, Fiscal Affairs Department, IMF, Washington DC. He is grateful to the IMF for allowing him the necessary study leave at the OECD to write this book.
Moo-Kyung Jung (co-author), from the Ministry of Planning and Budget of Korea, is Project Manager in the Budgeting and Management Division of GOV, OECD.
The OECD Journal on Budgeting is a unique resource for policy makers, officials and researchers in public sector budgeting. Drawing on the best of the recent work of the OECD Working Party of Senior Budget Officials, as well as special contributions from Finance Ministries of member countries and others, the Journal provides insights on leading-edge institutional arrangements, systems and instruments for the effective and efficient allocation and management of resources in the public sector.
We are anxious to receive feedback from our readers. Your views on how to improve the Journal are welcome and can be sent to: The Editors, The OECD Journal on Budgeting, OECD, 2 rue André-Pascal, F-75775 Paris Cedex 16, France. Fax: (33 1) 44 30 63 34; e-mail: sbo.news@oecd.org.
The Editors
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OECD JOURNAL ON BUDGETING – VOLUME 4 – NO. 3 – ISSN 1608-7143 – © OECD 2004 |
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FOREWORD
Public Governance
and Territorial Development Directorate, OECD
Odile Sallard
Director
Alex Matheson
Head of Budgeting and Management Division
Andrea Uhrhammer
Communications and Information Manager
OECD Journal on Budgeting
Jón R. Blöndal
Editor-in-Chief
Board of Advisors
Richard Emery (Chairman)
Assistant Director, Office of Management and Budget, United States
Peter DeVries
Director, Fiscal Policy, Department of Finance, Canada
Gerd Ehlers
Director of the Budget, Federal Ministry of Finance, Germany
Iain Rennie
Deputy Secretary, The Treasury, New Zealand
Peter Saurer
Deputy Director, Federal Finance Administration, Switzerland
Ian Watt
Permanent Secretary, Department of Finance and Administration, Australia
OECD JOURNAL ON BUDGETING – VOLUME 4 – NO. 3 – ISSN 1608-7143 – © OECD 2004 |
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