Budget transparency has in recent decades come to be seen as a pillar of good governance by international organisations and civil society groups. This article reviews budget-related transparency and accountability initiatives (TAIs) to analyse their impact. Cross-national academic studies find that budget transparency is correlated with better credit ratings, better fiscal discipline, less corruption, and higher political turnout. Case studies in Brazil, Uganda, Tanzania, Pakistan, and South Africa show a mixed picture of the impact of independent budget groups.
While there are many examples of success in terms of budget processes around the world being opened up to greater participation and scrutiny, there is no single recipe for creating a successful initiative to enhance transparency and accountability in the budget process. A consistent set of factors does however appear across those TAIs defined as successful in various ways. These include:
- building horizontal and vertical alliances between stakeholders,
- the production of legitimate information,
- legal empowerment,
- international support.
The article concludes by identifying ways in which knowledge of the effectiveness of TAIs could be improved, including the comparison of successful and unsuccessful cases, the collection of time-series data, better qualitative research, and various methodological innovations.
