| As a political-decision-making process, public budgeting is in the constraint of the decision-making mechanism. The budgetary decision-making mechanism determines the distribution of budgetary power, the budgetary procedures and rules which budget participant have to comply with, and finally determines budget results. Budgetary decisions could be divided into income decision, process decision, expenditure decision, balance decision and implementation decision. On the one hand, they are independent; On the other hand, they are interrelated. The complete analysis of decision-making mechanism at least should include the budget structure, budget process, budgetary rules, budget participant and budget information, they together have an influence on budgetary decision-making. To be a good budget, is it to make an adjustment on budget decision-making mechanism according to the social and economic development. The good budget must be a sustainable, effective, efficient, democratic and responsible budget. At present, almost all of Chinese governments, including central government and most of local governments, follow the "two up two down" budgetary procedure. This is an executive-lead, opaque, bottom-up, control-oriented budget process. The budgetary power is dispersive, party committee and executive leaders play a leading role in budget decision-making. There are not specific transparent mechanisms for citizens and various interest groups involved in the budget. Some local governments have been or are being participatory budget reform and performance budget, these reforms have a certain impact on budget structure, budget process, budgetary rules, but they are not fundamentally solve all the problems in decision-making mechanism. In order to construct a good budget and improve Chinese budgetary decision-making mechanism, we need to adjust the budget structure, definitude power relationships, optimize the budget process, perfect the responsibility system, improve the transparency of budget, and be in response to the public's needs. |
