The Design of Budgeting Processes for State-Funded Higher Education Organizations
As resources decline, occasions for delay and conflict in the budgetary process increase. Yet, if there is one essential characteristic of an internal budgetary process, it is that this process must meet a deadline. Consequently, minimizing all sorts of delays, including those resulting from conflict, is a desideratum. Also, resource decline and increased competition for funding prompt an increased desire for improved budget growth rates and budget success rates. These concepts were first elaborated by Fenno [4, chap. 8] in application to congressional appropriations committee behavior with respect to federal agencies and bureaus. Budget growth rate, roughly, is the ratio between the amount of money appropriated for an organization for one year and the amount appropriated for the next year. Budget success rate is the ratio between the amount requested by an organization and the amount actually appropriated for it for that year. No authors, to my knowledge, have directly formulated hypotheses and done research on the subject of maximizing budget growth and success rates for state-funded organizations below the state agency or bureau level. There is not yet a science here, but only a state of the art, consisting of governmental relations and lobbying. The subject of maximizing growth rates is beyond the scope of this article, which deals with desirable