Parliaments and the Budget Process: Eight Trends

Abstract

Involvement in setting public budgets and overseeing their implementation has traditionally been a key power of parliaments, alongside law-making and control of the executive. Yet, although budgeting is a core parliamentary function, essential features of public budgeting and parliaments’ role in the budgetary cycle – ranging from initial discussions about the overall shape and balance of the public budget to the scrutiny of public accounts – have been subject to rapid and often far-reaching change in many countries. The present paper highlights eight trends in public budgeting and discusses their implications for parliaments. These trends include efforts aimed at improved i sustainability; ii information; iii integration; iv equity; v transparency; vi oversight and accountability; vii inclusiveness; and viii international coordination. Taken together, these eight trends have the potential of transforming the manner in which parliaments engage in public budgeting.