ABSTRACT
Public budgeting and financial management in the twentieth century is largely a story of executive–legislative relations, efforts to control government spending and curb corruption and abuse, intergovernmental relations, and changing ideas and technology in administration. The historical and bibliographic essay presents chronologically the major documents, publications, and theoretical and empirical developments most enduring in the literature and most influential in the profession of American public budgeting and financial management. Contemporary insistence on economy as a decisive value in public budgeting at the state and local levels is best illustrated by Proposition 13, an initiative amendment to the California constitution passed by referendum in June 1978. Efficiency, a business posture, cost cutting, and outright economy represent enduring values in US public budgeting and financial management. The modern era in American budgeting and financial management is characterized by several significant changes which reflect developments in the larger polity.
