The Research On The System Of Budget Amendment Authority Of Local People's Congress

The budget amendment authority refers to make changes to the draft budget.It must be exercised in legal procedures and executed by the entity that has the power of examining and approving the budget.Most countries in the world have explicitly given their parliaments budget amendment authority.However,in China,the "Constitution of the People's Republic of China(PRC)",the "Budget Law of the PRC" and the "Organic Law of the National People's Congress of the PRC" have not clearly defined budget amendment authority of National People's Congress(NPC).It results that People's Congress can either endorse or reject the entire draft budget.It is often the case that the draft budget proposal is directly passed and the supervision of the NPC attaches more importance to procedures than substances.In contrast to the lack of budget amendment authority in national law,seven provinces and some counties have stipulated this authority and made some successful experiences.However,the system of this authority also faces operational limits due to inadequate power bases,blurred power boundaries and lack of supportive conditions.On the basis of fully taking the advantages of innovation of local system,the Budget Law should clearly identify the budget amendment authority of People's Congress,clarify the substantive contents of NPC budget amendment authority,and create the supportive conditions.Besides the introduction and conclusion,this thesis is divided into five parts.The first part summarizes the theory of budget amendment authority.It firstly defines the connotation and the theoretical basis of this authority.Then it properly introduces the topic of budget amendment authority at local level.The second part sorts out the practices of Local People's Congress(LPC)in budget amendment authority.Seven provinces have stipulated the budget amendment authority in their formal legislations.Moreover,plenty of successful practices occur in cities and counties.The first example is Wenling,Zhejiang,which combines the budget amendment system with consultative democratic system,refines the procedures of exercising this power,and explores the restrictions of it.Another example is Minhang District of Shanghai,which establishes the system of budget amendment authority in the legal documents.The third part analyzes the operational limits of budget amendment authority of LPC.The institutional innovation of LPC budget amendment authority provides a possible way toelevate budgetary democracy.However,its operation is also confronted with the legitimacy query brought by deficiencies in power bases,the sustainability query brought by ambiguous power boundaries,the feasibility query brought by the lack of the supportive conditions.The fourth part is the extraterritorial investigation of budget amendment authority system.It respectively overviews the system of budget amendment authority in the United States,the United Kingdom and Germany.Then it returns to the ideas behind these systems: the budgetary authority of the legislature should be strengthened,the regulation of the content of the budget amendment authority should be emphasized,and the powerful professional institutions should be established.The fifth part puts forward the suggestions for the establishment of budget amendment authority system of LPC in China.As to the establishment of the system of budget amendment authority,the provisions of the Budget Law are different from the supply of the local system.The Budget Law should explicitly recognize the budget amendment authority of NPC to overcome the legitimacy limitation,clarify the substantive contents of NPC budget amendment authority to overcome the sustainability limitation,and create the supportive conditions of the budget system to overcome the feasibility limitation.Meanwhile,local legislation could stipulate the specific procedures of the implementation of this authority so that the vitality of the local system could be fully released.