While governments prefer to alter budgets to fit their ideological stances, the domestic and international contexts can facilitate or constrain their behavior. This book explains when governments do and do not make their preferred budgetary changes, examining how and when these various contexts affect the budgetary decision-making processes.

Christine S. Lipsmeyer is a professor in the Department of Political Science at Texas A & M University. Her research interests merge many areas of political science, including comparative political economy, public policy, governing institutions, and political behavior.

1. Introduction; 2. A Theory of Budgets; 3. Political Competition and the Expenditure Pie; 4. The Effects of Elections, Economics and International Shocks on the Expenditure Pie; 5. Four Sides of the Budgetary Ledger; 6. The Effects of Elections, Economics and External Shocks on the Budgetary Ledger; 7. Conclusion: The Budgetary Mix.