Budgeting: Politics and Power

A skillful balance of application and theory, Budgeting: Politics and Power by Carol W. Lewis and W. Bartley Hildreth is a comprehensive yet highly accessible introduction to the politics of budgeting.

Unlike other texts on the subject--which typically focus only on budgeting issues at the federal level--this book emphasizes budgeting at the state and local levels to translate budgetary politics in a way that will be more relevant to the vast majority of students.

In order to help students dissect the material and integrate it in a meaningful way, Lewis and Hildreth organize each chapter around key questions about core issues in a democracy. Informed by the authors' own individual backgrounds and expertise, the text presents a thorough--and unbiased--account of the different arguments and political perspectives surrounding budgetary politics.

FEATURES

* Places a unique emphasis on the political aspects of budgeting
* Provides students with the skills and tools they need to work through the political challenges and controversies of budgeting trade-offs
* Offers strong pedagogy including web site resources, case studies, in-class exercises, discussion and review questions; many charts, tables, photos, and cartoons; a glossary of budgeting terms; and an appendix of key federal budgeting points
* Draws on a wide range of academic disciplines including political science, public administration, public policy, economics, psychology, demography, and history
* A Companion Web Site that provides links to videos, chronologies, web resources, additional technical and advanced materials, and primers on reading federal and state budgets

Carol W. Lewis is Professor of Political Science at the University of Connecticut. In addition to writing and editing several books, she has lectured all over the world and has published scholarly articles in Public Administration Review, Municipal Finance Journal, Publius, and other journals.

W. Bartley Hildreth is Professor of Public Management and Policy in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University in Atlanta. He received the Aaron B. Wildavsky Award for lifetime scholarly achievement in Public Budgeting and Finance in 2008 from the Association for Budgeting and Financial Management.