Public Management Seminars - Bruce McDonald

Social equity, understood in terms of fairness, due process, and justice, is one of the key pillars of public administration. While significant attention has been paid in recent years to understanding the roots of inequity and its implications on governance, little is understood about its application in the public budgeting process. In this study, we approach the issue of social equity budgeting by exploring how residents view and understand what is a socially equitable budget. To do so, we conducted a survey of 1000 residents in Virginia, asking the residents to define equity and explain their perspective of what an equitable budgeting process would look like. The results of the study reveal cognitive dissonance between public administrators and the communities they serve while highlighting the challenges that governments face with implementing social equity principles.

 

Bruce McDonald is a professor of public budgeting and finance and director of the School of Public Service at Old Dominion University. McDonald also directs the Municipal Research Lab, serves as the editor-in-chief of Public Administration, co-editor-in-chief of Public Finance Journal, and as the general editor for both the Routledge Public Affairs Education Book Series and the Routledge Public Budgeting and Finance Book Series.
He teaches master's and doctoral-level courses in public budgeting, financial management, and research design. As a researcher on public and nonprofit management, he investigates issues related to government performance across a number of areas of social science research, focusing on how to improve government efficiency. McDonald has carried his journalism experience forward and published more than 100 articles and book chapters. McDonald sits on the boards of several nonprofit organizations, including the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration and the Southeastern Conference of Public Administration. Prior to his academic career, McDonald served spent a number of years working on Capitol Hill, serving as a legislative aide to Senator Bob Graham and, later, to Representative Allen Boyd.