Studies On Legal Control Of Fiscal Expenditures

The Legal Control in fiscal expenditures is a proposition brought forward in the process of constructing the public financial system. Public budget, as a fundamental approach to such legal control in fiscal expenditures, also acts as the basis of other means and institutions of the legal control in fiscal expenditures. When we take the legal control in fiscal expenditures into consideration from a public budget perspective, we should put forward the following questions: What is the significance of the legal control in fiscal expenditures in public financial system? What kind of theories should be applied to when we control fiscal expenditures by laws? How to realize the legal control of fiscal expenditures on the institution level? How does China’s current legal control of fiscal expenditures transform to meet the need of constructing public financial system?This dissertation aims to solve the above problems. The whole dissertation consists of five chapters besides the introduction, which can be divided into three general parts. PartⅠ, consisting of Chapter 1 and Chapter 2, is the basic analysis of the whole theories, with Chapter 1 discussing the theoretical foundation of legal control in fiscal expenditures, and chapter 2, the ideological foundation of legal control of fiscal expenditures. PartⅡ, consisting of Chapter 3 and Chapter 4, gives an institutional analysis. Chapter 3 analyzes the legal control of fiscal expenditures from the perspective of budgetary powers, and chapter 4, the legal control of fiscal expenditures from the perspective of budgetary rights. In PartⅢ(Chapter 5) we have an analysis of the matter of transition, focusing on the transition of the legal control in fiscal expenditures set in the reform of finance publicalization in China and the budgetary reform in western developed countries.Chapter 1 is Publicness of Government Finance: the Theoretical Foundation of Legal Control of Fiscal Expenditures. Based on the publicness of government finance, this chapter analyzes some basic theoretical problems related to legal control of fiscal expenditures. Two problems have been discussed in this chapter within two sections separately. Section one, the publicness of government finance, is the foundation of theoretical analysis, aiming to illustrate the concept of publicness as a key to understand government finance. No matter how we understand“government finance”, we are actually referring to realizing the publicness of government finance. Section 2 discusses the relationship between the publicness of government finance and the legal control of fiscal expenditures. After the analysis of such kind of relationship, this section also points out that the construction of public financial system is a history of legal control of fiscal expenditures and, after fiscal expenditures, taking the place of fiscal revenues, have drawn people’s more attention, the publicness of government finance has become more and more obvious. Furthermore, this section analyzes the importance of public budget system in legal control of fiscal expenditures. On the whole, this section aims to illustrate that the legal control of fiscal expenditures must take realizing the publicness of government finance as its goal and public budgetary system its basic approach.Chapter 2 is Exploring of the Ideas of Legal Control of Fiscal Expenditures. Ideas can be the guide of actions. This chapter mainly answers what kind of ideas should be applied to in the legal control of fiscal expenditures. Four types of important ideas have been referred to in this chapter: the idea of fiscal efficiency, the idea of fiscal fairness, the idea of fiscal democracy, and the idea of rule of law in government finance. Because the ideas of fiscal efficiency and fiscal fairness are results-oriented and the ideas of fiscal democracy and rule of law in government finance are process-oriented, and considering the inner relationship between efficiency and fairness, and democracy and the rule of law, the four ideas are classified into two groups. Section 1 analyzes the ideas of fiscal efficiency and fiscal fairness and expounds how to realize them in legal control of fiscal expenditures. Section 2 analyzes the ideas of fiscal democracy and rule of law in government finance and their realization in legal control of fiscal expenditures.Chapter 3 is Dimension of the Powers in Legal Control of Fiscal Expenditures. This chapter gives an institutional analysis of the legal control of fiscal expenditures from the perspective of budgetary powers. The analysis covers three important budgetary processes discussed in three sections separately. Section 1 is the legal control of budget formulation process. Focusing on the powers of budget formulation, it firstly discusses the configuration of the powers of formulating budget, then the fundamental principles of formulating budget, and thirdly the legal control of the powers of formulating budget from the aspects of substances and procedures. Section 2 is the legal control of budget deliberation process. This section firstly discusses the core status of legislature’s power of deliberating budget in budgetary powers, using method of historical analysis, secondly analyzes three basic expression forms of budget deliberating powers, which are the power of approving budget, the power of correcting budget, and the power of vetoing budget, thirdly the procedures in budget deliberation. Section 3 is the legal control of budget implementation process, which in fact is the problem of supervision of budget implementation. This section firstly points out that the normalization and rationalization are two goals of supervision of budget execution, then comparatively analyzes four types of supervision of budget implementation which represented in US, China, France, and Japan. The two systemic problems(i.e. the dependence of audit supervision and the configuration of powers of budget adjustment) and two specific problems in budget execution supervising (i.e. the system of budget implementation reporting and the system of treasury centralized paying) have also been put forward, with a later illustration of the legal responsibilities in budget implementation.Chapter 4 is Dimension of the Rights in Legal Control of Fiscal Expenditures. This chapter gives an institutional analysis for legal control of fiscal expenditures from the perspective of budgetary rights. Only when the citizens’rights to be informed, to participate, to oversee in budget process are protected by laws can legal control of fiscal expenditures be carried out and the publicness of government finance be realized ultimately in the dimension of citizens’rights. This chapter expands around the above three aspects. Section 1, which focuses on fiscal transparency, firstly illuminates the importance of fiscal transparency of citizens’budgetary rights to be informed, then discusses the foreign construction of fiscal transparency, foucusing on the proposals of IMF and OECD, and then analyzes the legal problems which should be resolved in the construction of fiscal transparency, last the current situation of fiscal transparency in China and the legal countermeasures. Section 2 analyzes the problem of protecting citizens’rights to participate in budgetary process. This section, which focuses on participatory budgeting, discusses the background and significance for citizens to participate in budget decision, comparatively analyzes the participation practice in budget decision at home and abroad, and points out that legalization is the only road to expand and deepen citizens’participation in budget decision. Section 3 analyzes the problem of protecting citizens’rights to supervise in budget execution. This section, which focuses on taxpayers’suit, reveals the relationships between citizens’rights to oversee in budgetary process and taxpayers’suit, investigates the foreign taxpayers’suit systems, and discusses the construction of taxpayers’suit system in China.Chapter 5 is The Transition of Legal Control of Fiscal Expenditures in China. The problem of the transition in legal control of fiscal expenditures in China has been involved from a more macro analytical perspective, so as to explore an effective way to construct public financial system in China. There are two sections in this chapter. Section 1 analyzes the historical background of China’s transitional system, which includes the publicalization of government finance in China and the budget reform movement in western developed countries, laying foundation of the legal control of fiscal expenditures. Section 2 analyzes the transitional means of the legally control in fiscal expenditures in China, revealing the practical dilemma of legal control of fiscal expenditures. The critical problems in transition are so serious that it is imminently to find an effective way to control the fiscal expenditures of China by laws.