Fiscal foundations: recentering public finance in public administration and management

Whitney Afonso, University of North Carolina Public finance is foundational to public administration because it provides mechanisms through which governments generate resources, implement policies, and ensure accountability in the pursuit of public goals. Like other major areas of focus in public administration, public finance is an inherently interdisciplinary field, drawing from management, economics, law, and political science. Public finance is in a period of significant change, making it more essential than ever for a broader set of public administration scholars to engage in the discussion about the future of this area of study and practice. For example, in the current political and governmental context, public administration and management scholars should pursue work that critically assesses resource allocation, fiscal sustainability, devolution of responsibility, and equitable service delivery. As the United States’ federal government continues to fail to achieve a balanced budget and efforts like the Trump administration’s budget reductions—such as the Department of Government Efficiency’s cost cutting measures involving contract terminations, agency closures and restructuring, and workforce reductions persist—administrators at all levels of government contend with the possible and real impacts of revenue shortfalls on their ability to provide services and even maintain their employment. This uncertainty impacts every aspect of public administration in practice and theory. For example, will the affected programs shift focus to services that are more visible and easily measured to demonstrate value (i.e., resource dependency theory)? Or how will internal capacity be eroded if and when staff with institutional knowledge retire or leave their organization? Will these strains lead to increased psychological strain and burnout? These public finance questions crosscut many other theoretical domains in public ­administration.