Effectiveness Budgeting: The Limits of Budget Reform

This paper is concerned with the potential for improving public sector financial management by means of efforts to budget in terms of effectiveness. A series of statements are derived from the assumptions of Effectiveness Budgeting to consider what the preconditions for its success and failure might be, in an effort to begin to fill what i s argued to be a void in the literature in the field. Comments are offered as to the likelihood of Effectiveness Budgeting realizing i t s own stated ideal and its utility under less than ideal conditions.