Budget Reform Politics

In this book the author examines the dynamics of budget reform politics, focusing on the development of the appropriations process in the House from the creation of the Appropriation Committee in 1865 to the passage of the Budget and Accounting Act in 1921. Reviewing the more general historical role of electoral imperatives, committee and party leadership, Congressional-presidential relations, and economic and societal developments, the author first proposes a theory of budget reform politics. He then moves on, utilizing the tenet of rational choice theory as well as econometric analysis, to an examination of the budgetary decision-making process in over two dozen budget reform attempts during the period 1865 to 1921. The applicability of the general theory developed to this period is demonstrated as well as the similarity of the dynamics of this period to those of contemporary politics.