Putting the Politics Back into Financial Administration: An Application of Case-Based Teaching

Teachers of the budgeting/finance course in the public administration curriculum face a series of content choices that may be unique compared to those of other core courses. Most major texts offer a thorough treatment of the politics and techniques of budgeting, but few provide the same balanced treatment of the politics and techniques of financial administration. If a teacher is persuaded that the administration of finance is as political as the budgeting process, his or her challenge is integrating a political dimension into the technical aspects of tax administration, pension fund management, cash management, and debt administration. What follows is an example of how the political dimension of local debt administration can be introduced into a rigorous presentation of debt administration techniques in a method that both energizes and involves students. This article examines the necessity of including political factors in local debt administration, briefly discusses some aspects of using cases in the classroom, and offers an original case, including teaching notes, to demonstrate the intersection of the politics and practice of debt administration.