Budgeting democracy
Subtitle: state building and citizenship in America, 1890-1928
By: Jonathan Kahn.
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Ithaca, NY
Language: eng
Number of pages: 222
Subjects: Budget -- United States -- History.; Budget -- United States -- States -- History.; Municipal budgets -- United States -- History -- 20th century.; Municipal budgets -- New York (State) -- New York -- History -- 20th century.; Political culture -- United States -- History -- 20th century.; United States -- Politics and government -- 20th century.
Description: There was a time when no government in the United States had a coherent budget system. Jonathan Kahn tells the story of how a small, energetic band of reformers waged a successful campaign in Progressive era America to introduce fundamentally new systems of public budgeting into hundreds of cities, every state, and ultimately the federal government. It is a story that has remarkable resonances today.

Kahn suggests that budget reform altered understandings of citizenship and political accountability while facilitating a conceptual leap from seeing government as a random agglomeration of administrative fiefdoms to envisioning a coherent, interrelated, and unitary state.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.