Linking budgeting to results? Evidence about performance budgets in European municipalities based on a comparative analytical model

ABSTRACT

This article contributes to the debate on the incorporation of performance information in European local government budgets. At the core is the development of an analytical model for comparing efforts of performance budgeting (PB). Evidence in ten cases indicates that performance structures and the span of performance differ, that performance indicators are far from always measuring outcomes or outputs, and that future and past performance figures are often absent. Nevertheless similar learning trajectories do exist. Possible explanations for the variation involve the varying degrees of reform implementation, experience with PB and prevailing institutional arrangements.

KEYWORDS:

• Local government
• performance budgeting
• performance information

Declaration of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. This network studies Local Public Sector Reforms and stimulates International Comparison.

2. Moreover, the seven layers of Bari are allocated to two different budget documents, the ‘official’ budget and the MEP (see below).

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by the COST Action “Local Public Sector Reforms (LocRef)”: [Grant Number IS 1207]. This network studies Local Public Sector Reforms and stimulates International Comparison (for more information, see http://www.uni-potsdam.de/cost-locref/). This research would not have been possible without the contribution of the following team members: Riccardo Mussari and Alfredo Ettore Tranfaglia (University of Siena), Christian Schwab (University of Potsdam), Nicole Küchler-Stahn (Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences), Åge Johnsen and Lillian Oterholt (Oslo and Akershus), Urszula Zawadzka-Pąk (University of Bialystok), Vitalis Nakrošis (Vilnius University), Geraldine Robbins (National University of Ireland Galway) and Johan de Kruijf (Radboud University of Nijmegen).

Notes on contributors

Pieter Bleyen

Pieter Bleyen is PhD-student at the KU Leuven Public Governance Institute. His main fields of research are performance budgeting, performance management and cutback management. In 2012 he completed his Master level in the field of public policy and management.

Daniel Klimovský

Daniel Klimovský is Assistant Professor at the Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia. In 2003, he completed his Master level in the field of public administration, and in 2009, his PhD study in the field of political theory. He is involved in several international research projects, and his research activities are focused on policy making and politics at the subnational levels.

Geert Bouckaert

Geert Bouckaert is professor at the KU Leuven Public Governance Institute and president of the International Institute of Administrative Sciences.

Christoph Reichard

Christoph Reichard is emeritus professor of Public Management at the University of Potsdam, Germany. His main fields of research include public management reforms, organization of public service delivery, state-owned enterprises, performance management, public financial management and public personnel management. He published about 280 books and articles.