Democratization and budget openness: evidence from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan
| Author | Brian C.H. Fong |
| Published date | 01 June 2021 |
| Date | 01 June 2021 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0020852319845453 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
Democratization and
budget openness:
evidence from Hong
Kong, Macao and Taiwan
Brian C.H. Fong
The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Abstract
The existing literature postulates that budget openness often improves at critical
moments of democratization. Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, which are transitional
regimes currently experiencing different regime trajectories, should be ideal places
to test the validity of this theory. By examining whether and how open budget
reforms in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan are related to their regime trajectories
through historical-comparative case studies, this article aims to make an original
contribution to the comparative budgeting literature by providing a new and
unique set of Open Budget Survey-based case studies in the context of East
Asian transitional regimes.
Points for practitioners
This article uses comparative studies of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan to illustrate
the politics of budget openness facing policymakers in the process of democratiza-
tion. For policymakers, the lesson from the comparative studies is that the rise of
competitive electoral and legislative politics will bring about pressures for open
budget reforms. More policy learning is necessary for policymakers from different
types of political regimes to share the experiences of handling the politics of
budget openness.
Keywords
comparative budgeting, democratization, Hong Kong, Macao, Open Budget Survey, Taiwan
Corresponding author:
Brian C.H. Fong, The Education University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, Hong Kong New Territories, Hong Kong.
Email: chfong@eduhk.hk
International Review of Administrative
Sciences
2021, Vol. 87(2) 311–327
!The Author(s) 2019
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DOI: 10.1177/0020852319845453
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Introduction
In the comparative budgeting literature, the Open Budget Survey (OBS) is increas-
ingly attracting prominence. Developed by the International Budget Partnership
(IBP), an OBS-based comparative budgeting literature is rapidly being developed
(De Renzio and Masud, 2011; Seifert et al., 2013). In this regard, existing
OBS-based literature closely relates budget openness to democratization, arguing
that the rise of competitive electoral and legislative politics will bring
about improvement in budget openness at critical moments of democratization
(Khagram et al., 2013).
Is this theory applicable to East Asian transitional regimes and, if so, to what
extent? This article intends to address this research question through historical-
comparative case studies of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.
Theorizing democratization and budget openness: a review of
the literature
Based on a standard questionnaire, the OBS measures the public availability of
budgetary information in eight key budget documents,
1
the extent to which the
public can participate in the budgetary process and the role of the legislature and
supreme audit institutions (International Budget Partnership, 2016). To facilitate
cross-country comparisons over time, the IBP produced the Open Budget Index
(OBI) by calculating a simple average of the quantified responses to the 95 ques-
tions relating to the budget discourse from the OBS questionnaire, assigning each
country a score ranging from 0 to 100 (De Renzio and Masud, 2011).
2
In recent years, an OBS-based comparative literature has rapidly been devel-
oped, focusing on investigating the determinants of the state of budget openness,
particularly on the causal effects of democratization. By adopting 2008 OBS data
as a dependent variable and analysing their correlation with different measures of
democracy, Wehner and De Renzio (2013) found that the ‘holding of free and fair
elections’ is positively correlated with the state of budget openness. This theory has
been further illustrated by country case studies of South Africa, Brazil, South
Korea, Mexico, Guatemala, Tanzania and Senegal, as covered by Khagram, De
Renzio and Fung (2013), highlighting that the rise of competitive electoral and
legislative politics at critical moments of democratization will result in improve-
ment in budget openness.
While ‘democratization’ has been highlighted as the principal factor structuring
the state of budget openness, other potential factors have also been discussed
within the existing literature. In Khagram, De Renzio and Fung’s (2013) country
case studies, ‘fiscal/economic crises’ are found to be significant in forcing govern-
ments to put in place new mechanisms for budgetary control and scrutiny, ‘cor-
ruption scandals’ are viewed as effective in compelling governments to increase
budget openness to pacify public discontent, and ‘external influences’ from foreign
donors and international agencies are considered conducive to budget openness.
312 International Review of Administrative Sciences 87(2)
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