Measuring Government Performance: The Intersection of Strategic Planning and Performance Budgeting

Abstract

In the United States, recommendations that public budgeting systems incorporate performance information can be tracked back at least to the beginning of the 20th century when the New York Bureau of Municipal Research suggested that the New York City budget show the objectives and activities of government rather than just itemizing planned purchases (Williams, 2004). Most government budget experts, while acknowledging the many challenges to performance budgeting, posit that presenting performance information alongside budget amounts introduces a different rationality into budget decision-making by focusing funding choices on results rather than on political bartering (Willoughby, 2011: 352).