1.The role of the public in public administration continues to be deliberated an
ID: 2586906 • Letter: 1
Question
1.The role of the public in public administration continues to be deliberated and defined. Many local governments solicit public participation in their budget preparations and a few even involve citizens in budget implementations as well. Participatory Budgeting (PB) is a budgeting process where various stakeholders debate, prioritize, and monitor choices made about public expenditure (Mikesell, 2017). Answer the following questions:
1)Discuss the pros and cons of PB. Give examples.
2)What management strategies would you recommend to a local government for an effective engagement of a diverse citizenry in its budget process?
3)How do you think the use of information and communication technology (ICT) such as social media and videoconferencing may influence the effectiveness of PB?
Explanation / Answer
Answer: (1)
Pros of participative budgeting:
Participative budgeting has the advantage of transferring information from the subordinate to their Superior . This knowledge is likely to be more reliable and accurate as the subordinate has the direct contact with the activity and therefore is in the best position to make budget estimates. Participative Budgeting also gives subordinates the opportunity to discuss organizational issues with superiors in which an exchange of information and ideas can help to solve problems and agree future actions . this transferral of information is important particularly when dealing with a matter of high task difficulty , as the more difficult the task , the greater the need for consultation with subordinates . participative budgeting has the higher performance rate when dealing with more difficult and volatile task than non consultative budgeting. Participative budgeting is also beneficial as it can lead to greater job satisfaction of the subordinates, as he/she believes that they have influenced the final budget and contributed and contributed as a team member.
Cons of Participative budgeting :
The disadvantage of subordinate/superior information transferral is of course that the information supplied by the subordinate may not be entirely accurate ; the budget estimation may be overstated to make the subordinates job easier to achieve. The difference between the true estimated budget and the overstated budget is known as budgetary slack . The reason for padding out the budget is to allow for any unsuspected environmental changes that may takes place. In 1973 it was found out that 80% of managers pad out their budgets and nowadays with increased pressure to perform it is likely to have increased. Many managers intentionally pad out the budgets because they believe that it is likely to be reduced regardless, and therefore it is better to overestimate than be accurate. Also the disadvantage of PB is that there are many factors involved in achieving what is believed to be distributive justice and procedural justice.
Answer: (2)
Citizens are diverse. Not only do citizen viewpoints differ from those of government “insiders” but from citizen to citizen . No single citizen or group of citizen is able to represent the views of all citizens. So the best Management strategy for an effective engagement of a diverse citizenry in its budget process is to collect information in a variety of ways and from a variety of resources.
Answer: (3)
the inclusion of ICT in participation and decision making process can assume very different shapes. In some cases the can be used witin well defined limits , as information tools or for monitoring thePB during the debate and the implementation phase in other cases a more advanced use of ICT potentialities can serve as a support to political decision making process.
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