Municipal budgets: governance, surveillance, and legitimation

This study investigates the effect of institutional controls (governance), accounting controls (surveillance), and legitimation tactics on the size of municipal budgets. Ordinary least squares regression analysis is employed as the primary data analysis technique in this study. Overall, the results suggest that reform approaches to local government have not been as successful as the reformers envisioned. Additionally, while the results suggest that timely reporting is a deterrent to increased expenditures, the results also suggest that, to some degree, the use of legitimation tactics may offset the benefits of timely reporting.