62 - Intenational Journal of Public Budget- ASIP

Editor’s note

Productivity and full employment constitute essential aspects of the economy that determine the behavior of the public sector. The more productive an economy is and the more employment it demands, the greater the likelihood that good health, education or justice services are maintained. Also, the capacity to support social security systems shall increase. Conversely, when these economic variables are threatened, governments find themselves in a complex situation and public budgets immediately feel the impact.

The worldwide economy is expanding and the world has been noticing for many years that the US economy has been growing at rates higher than those of Europe. Until now, the scarcity of resources in Europe has led countries such as France or Germany to face very deep and long-term public sector reforms. This is the case of the State modernization process promoted by the French or the demanding 2010 Agenda that the Germans have set. But now, the trend seems to be reverting. Growth rates in Europe are starting to increase, while those of the United States seem to be decreasing. The US economy slowed down by 1.6% in the quarterly period that goes from August through October and analysts believe that the growth rate might fall by 2.5% per year as a result of a substantial reduction in productivity.

This will surely bring about considerable discussions in budgetary matters and substantial controversies shall be unavoidable as to the manner in which the public sector produces goods and services. It shall be necessary to produce more with less and if employment does not improve it is probable that even the social security system shall be questioned. Improving the quality of services and optimizing expenditure shall be in the US agenda, as happens in many countries that require a public sector that contributes to the competitiveness of the national economy. These and other topics of great relevance for budgeting are dealt with in this issue of the International Journal of Public Budget (Revista Internacional de Presupuesto Público) as a way to enrich the debate that is inexorably developing around these issues.

In an interesting work entitled “Public-private partnerships in Brazil”, Vânia das Graças Soarez analyzes new and creative alternatives that have already proved their effectiveness in such countries as the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada and Italy, to permit investments in public infrastructure and services within a framework of growing scarcity of resources.

The article written by Carlos Santiso, entitled “Parliaments and Budgeting: Political economy of the budgetary control in Latin America», explores the contribution of parliaments to the budget process in presidential systems of government with highly centralized budgetary systems. It offers a political economy perspective on the budget process in Latin America and assesses the conditions for and constraints to enhancing the role of parliaments in public budgeting. It underscores the risks of excessive executive discretion and the benefits of increased legislative oversight and external scrutiny, arguing that the key challenge of legislative budgeting in Latin American is how to retain the advantages of strong executive authority required to ensure fiscal discipline while providing the institutional checks and balances that guarantee effective accountability.

The work by Germán Molina Díaz, entitled “Evaluation of the introduction of integrated systems of financial management: some considerations on the Bolivian case”, is an analysis of the results from the introduction of this system and is intended to be a contribution to the more extended discussion being carried out in this country on the Integrated System of Administrative Management and Modernization (SIGMA).

Finally, the interesting article by Janet Stotsky on the subject “Gender bias in tax systems”, analyzes the manner in which this problem materializes through the differences existing in laws and regulations and reviews the studies performed in this field and suggests in which directions it would be more fruitful to approach other studies on this issue.

Thus, the International Journal of Public Budget (Revista Internacional de Presupuesto Público) brings its readers certain issues that trouble the specialists responsible for the management of the public sector in these difficult times of permanent change and adjustment to the new demands derived from a challenging environment of exchange and enormous competition.