Budget Theory

Budget theory is the academic study of political and social motivations behind government and civil society budgeting. Classic theorists in Public Budgeting include Henry Adams, William F. Willoughby, V. O. Key, Jr., and, more recently, Aaron Wildavsky. Notable recent theorists include Baumgartner and Jones--Frank R. Baumgartner and Bryan D. Jones, Richard Fenno, Allen Schick, Dennis Ippolito, Naomi Caiden, Irene Rubin, James D. Savage, Thomas Greitens and Gary Wamsley. Budget theory was a central topic during the Progressive Era and was much discussed in municipal bureaus and other academic and quasi-academic facilities of that time such as the nascent Brookings Institution.

The executive budget in USA was a financial innovation designed to empower city mayors and city managers with the capacity to implement needed policy reforms in the Progressive Era. Since that time, the executive budget has become a tool by which the president of the United States has been able to substantively shape policy and draw power to the president from Congress, which was originally charged with "holding the purse" (and still is constitutionally, as there is no federal-legislative authority to change the constitution outside the amendment process or for congress to legislate away their authority). This has resulted in an ever increasing role and power base for what is now called the Office of Management and Budget.