ABSTRACT
In light of pervasive ambiguity in the desired ends of public policy and uncertainty about which means are most likely to accomplish those ends, the work of finance specialists includes interpreting fiscal reality. Financial managers use professional logics of efficiency, agency, and democratic stewardship to make sense of decision opportunities in ways that enable them to arrive at decisions through computation, learning, or bargaining. To the extent financial managers are viewed as legitimate experts, they have authority to enforce those interpretations through the work others expect them to do: making decisions about spending and how to finance that spending.
