Performance budgeting – the next budgetary answer. But what is the question?

In the world of public budgeting, ideas and concepts often come, go, and then resurface years later in a slightly modified version. Performance budgeting was first abandoned in the 1960s; this paper examines its rebirth in an attempt to determine if it will make a significant contribution to American budgeting in the 21st century. Does it make for better budgetary decisions? What are the questions that performance budgeting is supposed to answer? Is it just another procedure that helps avoid focusing on problems of our ‘capacity to govern’? The paper concludes that while there are positive things to say about the drive to performance budgeting, the Office of Management and Budget should not recommend blanket adoption.