ABSTRACT
Introduction Nowadays, there is a recognized right to have a budget in all democracies. Citizens have the right to know in advance the amount of taxes they will be required to pay, and for what purposes and objectives that money will be spent. The literature on budgeting is immense even though, while several European countries have a long public accounting and budgeting tradition (Mussari, Ruggiero, and Monfardini 2010), in the US, “budgeting as we know it is a twentiethcentury phenomenon. Indeed, until about 1910, the president, governors and mayors did not prepare formal budget documents” (Downs and Larkey 1986: 146).
