« Taiwan Journal of Political Science No.11Publish: 1999/12

Reinventing Government by Public Finance Strategy

Author: Shoei-Po Lin, Chih-Wei Chen

Abstract / Chinese PDF Download

Public  finance  is  the  root  of  overall  governmental  management.  In today’s  ever  worsening  financial  state  of  major  governments  around  the globe, reinventing government has become a trend among leading industrial countries  and  the  driving  force  behind  this  movement  is  the  betterment  of public  finance  within  the  governmental  agencies  and  improving  overall budgetary  control.  Since  1991,  Taiwan  has  also  been  confronted  with  ever worsening  financial  dilemmas,  which  makes  the  reinventing  government process even more important. Public finance strategy itself has the following characteristics: frugality, politics, efficiency, accountability, openness, and public partnership. Its goal is   to   maximize   resource   utilization   to   achieve   the   maximization   of governmental outputs. The sub-strategy that this paper proposes to achieve the  goal  will  be  comprised  of  the  following  three  essential  management techniques: cutback, financial, and accountability management. The strategy is  to  first  consolidate  the  bases  of  public  finance  and  then  to  develop  a comprehensive financial system that will eventually be able to be responsive to changes within the environment. The  application  process  of  this  strategy  will  directly  be  effected  by interdependent  environments,  political  process,  implementability,  historical sedimentation,  and  performance  measurement.  Thus  the  implementator  of the overall scheme must beware of the above effects on the overall plan and attempt to attack them. Lastly,  this  paper  proposes  that  implementing  a  scheme  to  better government with public finance at its core can not be accommodated without political   overhaul.   The   role   of   the   congress   is   especially   important. Government  bureaucracies  must  not  only  work  at  eliminating  existing governmental  deficits;  they  must  work  at  eliminating  the  core  cause  of budgetary  deficits.  In  the  future,  governmental  allocation  of  resources between  overall  social  benefits  and  providing  appropriate  allocation  of public  finance  between  central  and  local  government  will  be  the  biggest challenge that lay in wake for public finance strategy.

Keywords:Accountable Management、Cutback Management、Financial Management、Fiscal Consolidation、Public Finance、Reinventing Government