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Dissertation Information for Marcia Hanna

NAME:
- Marcia Hanna

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Library and Information Science

SCHOOL:
- University of Wisconsin, Madison (USA) (1988)

ADVISORS:
- Jane B. Robbins

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Douglas L. Zweizig
- Charles A. Bunge

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: A test of the incremental model of federal budgeting: Library of Congress program priorities FY 1961-1981

Abstract: When Congress established the Library of Congress (LC) in 1800 it intended that it would be a modest collection which would serve the members' needs on subjects related to lawmaking. Instead, it evolved into the de facto national library. The library profession in the U.S. has long looked to LC both for important services and for leadership. Since its funding is a critical element in determining whether LC can provide services and leadership, a description of how the LC budget process actually works was needed.

Of equal significance, the placement of LC in the organizational structure of the federal government provided an opportunity to test the incremental model of federal budgeting under conditions where it had not previously been tested. That is, LC's placement in the Legislative Branch provided the opportunity to test the model where the requesting agency and the Congressional Appropriations Committee interacted directly, where the Office of Management and Budget and the President did not stand as intervening variables. This study took advantage of that opportunity to learn whether the behavioral patterns which the model predicted still obtained even though those two apparently important variables were missing.

Students of political science and public administration have produced a substantial body of research on the incremental model. The conceptual and theoretical framework of incremental decision making, as elaborated by Wildavsky, was used to develop sixteen propositions. The study was also concerned with obtaining a picture of the relative funding success of important LC programs. To that end, procedures developed by Peter Natchez and Irvin Bupp were used to compute an "Index of Prosperity" for selected programs. Primary sources, such as Congressional hearings, were studied and budget process participants were interviewed. It was concluded that Wildavsky's model provided a sound picture of the process and that, while programs varied in their success, that variation, with one exception, was not due to bureaucratic entrepreneurism.

MPACT Scores for Marcia Hanna

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-01-31 06:27:15

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