The Legal Framework for Budget
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«OECD Journal on Budgeting OECD Journal on Budgeting 4, Volume No. 3 Special Issue Special Issue The Legal Framework for Budget Systems The Legal AN INTERNATIONAL COMPARISON Framework for The legal basis for budget processes and budget actors varies enormously across OECD countries. For example, the United States has a dozen major laws Budget Systems to support federal government budget processes, while Denmark and Norway have never adopted any such law. AN INTERNATIONAL To understand this situation, this book compares legal frameworks for budgeting COMPARISON in 13 selected OECD countries. It presents detailed case studies of national budget system laws and identifies why the legal frameworks differ so much. The book also looks at theories of public finance and constitutional political economics, and discusses norms for an optimum legal framework. With a focus on similarities and differences in formal laws (constitutions and statutes relating to the budget system), the comparative analysis will be useful for any government planning to reform its budget laws. OECD Journal on Budgeting OECD’s books, periodicals and statistical databases are now available via www.SourceOECD.org, our online library. This book is available to subscribers to the following SourceOECD themes: Finance and Investment/Insurance and Pensions Governance [email protected] www.oecd.org ISSN 1608-7143 42 2004 05 1 P 2004 SUBSCRIPTION (4 ISSUES) Volume 4, No. 3 -:HRLGKI=\VYUUW: 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. OECD Publishing disseminates widely the results of the Organisation’s statistics gathering and research on economic, social and environmental issues, as well as the conventions, guidelines and standards agreed by its members. 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: [email protected] 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 ([email protected]). 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 3 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:(331)44306334; e-mail: [email protected]. The Editors 4 OECD JOURNAL ON BUDGETING – VOLUME 4 – NO. 3 – ISSN 1608-7143 – © OECD 2004 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 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents Preface . 11 Executive Summary . 13 Part I. Comparative Law, Constitutions, Politics and Budget Systems .23 1. Introduction. 24 2. Budget processes . 25 2.1. Budgeting: a five-stage process . 25 2.2. How are the different legal frameworks for budget systems organised? . 27 3. Can economic theory explain the differences? . 30 3.1. New institutional economics . 30 3.2. Law, economics and public choice theory. 31 3.3. Constitutional political economy: budgetary rules and budgetary outcomes . 32 3.4. Can game theory help? . 33 4. Can comparative law explain the differences? . 34 4.1. Families of legal systems and the importance of the constitution . 34 4.2. Absence of norms for constitutions partly explains differences in budget system laws . 37 4.3. Hierarchy within primary law also partly explains differences in budget-related laws . 38 4.4. Not all countries complete all steps of formal law-making processes. 40 4.5. Greater use is made of secondary law in some countries . 41 4.6. Decisions and regulations of the legislature are particularly important in some countries . 43