Government budgeting, power and negotiated order

This paper addresses a relatively neglected phenomenon in government budget setting – the processes by which budgets are agreed in political coalitions, particularly in minority governments. Minority government has been a matter of serious study by political scientists, but not by accountants. This study examines the phenomenon of budget setting in political coalitions and minority governments by drawing on the ideas of negotiated order (Strauss) and circuits of power (Clegg) and referring to the life of the Scottish Parliament (1999-2009). It offers evidence of the stability in the exercise of power in coalition governments and of the fragmentary nature of the negotiated social order in budget setting in minority government. Moreover, it also offers more general observations on government budget setting.