The Political Pursestrings: The Role of the Legislature in the Budgetary Process, ed. by Alan P. Balutis and Daron K. Butler. New York: John Wiley/Sons, 1975. Pp. 221. Cloth $15.00
Abstract
Book NotesThe Political Pursestrings: The Role of the Legislature in the Budgetary Process, ed. by Alan P. Balutis and Daron K. Butler. New York: John Wiley/Sons, 1975. Pp. 221. Cloth $15.00 SAGE Publications, Inc.1975DOI: 10.1177/027507407500900416 Mary Alice Owen Southwest Missouri State University With the exception of a fine chapter by Leif Hartmark on Wisconsin, the essays in The Political Pursestrings are uneven in quality, ranging from fair to quite poor. When this is added to the apparent inability of the editors of the collection to determine quite what it is that they want to do, the resulting book is disappointing. Taking first things first, the title of the book is misleading, in that the seven essays that form the bulk of it are supposed to be "descriptive and analytic" studies of the roles played by state legislative fiscal staff members and of the impact of these staff members on the decisions taken by the committees they serve. This is an interesting subject albeit somewhat different from that suggested by the title of the book. The seven essays that form the core of the book deal with fiscal staffing patterns for state legislative finance and appropriations committees in New