ABSTRACT
Making choices about public budgets is a formidable task. Budgets can be highly complex-almost overwhelming in their size, structure, specialized nomenclature, programmatic diversity, technical demands, and tight decision-making time lines. Yet because budgeting lies at the very heart of politics, determining who benefits from government programs and who pays the bills, budget makers also face the constraints common to political choice: they must make decisions in an environment of competing normative values, divergent policy priorities, and the strain of balancing self-interest and the public interest. This chapter discusses how budget participants deal with these constraints in making budgetary choices.
