OECD 주요국 의회의 재정 권한과 실제

The Formal and Actual Fiscal Powers of the US, UK and Japanese Legislatures

(Purpose) We have recently witnessed a high interest in the legislature s fiscal powers through democratization, diversification, and government responses to crises. Prior studies focused on the legislatures formal powers in traditional issues such as budget system, budget organization, budget review period, and budget modification, not analyzing actual powers and strategic issues such as top-down budgeting, long-term fiscal sustainability. This article attempts to overcome the limitations and expand the discussion of legislatures’ fiscal power. (Design/methodology/approach) We analyze the Congress of the U.S., the representative country of the presidential system, the Parliament of the U.K., the representative country of the parliamentary cabinet system, and the National Diet of Japan, the neighboring country of which the budget system is similar to that of Korea. We review literature, analyzing whether there is a difference between the formal fiscal power and actual fiscal power that the three countries legislatures have in the traditional issues and strategic issues. (Findings) Our analyses show that the actual fiscal powers are not the same as the formal ones in the legislatures’ budget amendment, top-down budgeting, etc. Also, legislature powers in strategic issues are not as strong as those in traditional powers. (Research implications or Originality) This article may provide implications for future discussions of the fiscal powers of legislatures.