Customer Reviews

The Politics of Public Budgeting: Getting and Spending, Borrowing and Balancing

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

In a field that gets lost in the forest while dwelling on the trees, this book is the only really current accessible text on budget policy and politics. The scope of the book is large, incorporating American federal, state and local governments within the same useful framework. The author makes a good case that budgeting isn't rocket science, although there are a lot of experts who occlude the larger importance of budgeting. But you have to pay attention. And Rubin keeps the reader focused on the who, what, why and how in lively prose, without making the subject dry.

This book helped me greatly in getting through my Politics of Budgeting course. The concepts are easily understood and the text flows well. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in public budgeting or is taking a budgeting course.

This book is extremely boring. Not becuase it is about government finance, which I usually find very interesting, but because the author has no personality. It is very cut and dry. Rubin tries to cram a lot of information in an entirely too long chapter, and she does not pull it off well. The chapters are repetitive and tedious. One feature that is worth mentioning in a positive light is that she has inserted throughout the chapters what she calls "minicases." These minicases are real life examples she uses to illustrate the topic. They help in understanding the topic better. However, they are too few and far between to give this book a top rating. Being totally honest, I would never read this book if I weren't required to for a class, and I would really almost rather bang my head against a wall than read it sometimes.

the books arrived roughly within the time period they were supposed to. they were in fair condition. I would order from amazon again.