ABSTRACT
The study of the politics of public expenditure requires an ability to analyse a series of tensions and conflicts in the context of the policymaking process. First, there is a need to explore the meaning of politics within the specific context of public expenditure decisions. This means making transparent the boundaries between political choice and constraint, and between events and the autonomy of government. For example, the decision by the UK Government in the Autumn Statement of November 1992 to make growth their major concern represented both a decision that reflected the Government’s response to external events and the fact that this decision implied an element of political choice. Equally, the decision to leave the ERM was neither inevitable nor did the Government have complete choice in making that decision.
