Changes In The Power Structure In The Budget, Power, And Democracy: The U.s. Budget History

This paper focuses on the budget history of U.S., while it is not a history study. The subject that I pay attention to is not history itself but political logic that is behind the history we can easily attach. In a word, there are three parameters: budget, power and democracy. These seem to be totally unrelated, but if put into the background and structure of the budget history of America, the inherent logic is clear at a glance: the American budget system has been developing, and the major impetus is a series of budget reforms; these reforms have caused great political effect that is the transformation of budget power structure, because there is a natural relationship between the budget system and power structure; the transformation of budget power structure will affect the existing and developing of democracy, because in American ideology, democracy is a kind of power arrangement which benefits majorities. I care ultimately for the future of American democracy. We can conclude a theoretic proposition from the historical logic of American budget, which is "democratic budget theory", in which power is the middle parameters that hangs budget and democracy together. In fact, the logic of "budget reform—transformation of power structure— development of democracy" is not complex, though is neglected by scholars inside and outside. The value of this paper is to deoxidize the truth though the perspective to American budget history in political view.This paper consists of seven parts; they are an introduction, five texts and a conclusion. The texts outline four stages in American budget history (one of them is transition stage), each stage reflects a model of power. They are "the pre-budgeting era"— the structure of legislative monolog; "the progressive era" —transition era(the destruction of legitimacy monolog and the rise of administration); "the era in which the executive branch leads the budget"—the power structure of political style; "the era of equipollence budgeting"—the power structure of game style; "the era of polycentric budgeting"— networking power structure. At first, I set off these stages according to some symbol incidents in American budget history, which seem to prove true.The first stage: the pre-budgeting era. Despite of lack of strict public budget in American, there were some budgeting behavior and non-institutional custom, which have great importance to the shape of modern budget. But it is partial to think these asthe headstream of American public budgeting. I take it granted that the headstream is in England, since there was deep brand of England budgeting in American colonies. Some historians thought that, American colonies of England came to be independent from England, though they had no motivate to do that. This paper tries to explain the history in approach of budget theory, while it may not be accepted by majorities. We can also find budget print in Constitution Congress, founding of the united states of American and the Civil War. In this era, American president and administration had no budget power at all. On the other hand, congress had monopolized the process of budget, which I call it legitimacy monolog era. This structure reflects representative democracy, but not suitable to "the America-style democracy" constructed by American founding fathers.The second stage: the progressive era. It has laid a foundation to the American modern budget, and a series of social reforms and budget reforms turned out to be the cornerstone of modern American. So the style of this part may be different from others. In this era, the idea of modern budget was introduced into American society, which was the foreshadowing of the form of American modern public budget institution. Among all the effects of the reforms, the rise of the power of the president and administration was outstanding; it not only laid a foundation to the modern presidency, but also destructed the monopoly of legitimacy. What is the most important is that, the rise of the power of the president and administration gave a powerful support to the "the America-style democracy"—"checks and balances" of powers, which made the American democracy to be realized.The third stage: the era in which the executive branch leads the budget, 1921～ 1974. As a landmark in budget history of America, "Budget and Accounting Act of 1921" opened the era of American modern public budget. In this period, the idea of public budget came into the institution. Moreover, the budget power has been transited from congress to administration. And finally, the executive branch led the public budget. Remarkably, the budget reforms in this era caused the promotion of power and technology in administration, which brought the administration absolute advantage over congress. But it does mean the monologue of administration, and the main reason lay in the congress committees' wisdoms to use political strategies, political process and principles to deal with administration. Whereas the importance of "politics" in the budget game, I call the power structure in this theory as "the power structure of political style". This period contributed to the rise of administration andthe realization of "checks and balances" of powers. But it is a pity that the new leviathan—administrative centralization of power came up. Of course, it was not the negation to American democracy, which still existed in American but deviated from the norm style.The forth stage: the era of equipollence budgeting,1974～1993. The stage began as the "Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974" came on. The act enlarged the congress budget power, while it didn't change the president budget power. The president should send to congress the budget that he still has a great effect to. And the following reforms gradually realized the balance between the congress and administration in power and technique, which is called "equipollence-style budgeting". In this model, there was a basic balance and game between the congress and president, which leads to the power structure of game style, which is related to the "the America-style democracy".The latest stage: the era of polycentric budgeting, 1993 to now. The new public management (the movement of reinventing government) came into American in 1990s and it led to the new performance budget reform. The idea of decentralization and participation in new performance budget brought more chance to actors to participate into public budget, which caused a new budget model—polycentric budgeting. In this era, many actors, which have stood outside of the budget process, such as grass-rooted unites and managers, the medias, citizens, social groups and so on, come into public budget by various ways. All these led to a kind of power networking power structure. Of course, the realism doesn't mean the realization of network power structure in American, which makes the "the America-style democracy" still a political Utopia, though it promoted the democracy.Based on above analysis, the author concludes the "democratic budget theory " to deoxidize the political logic behind American budget history. Then, can the theory explain the reform and development of China's public budget? It is expected to be answered in following studies.