Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Preface
- Introduction
- Part I Foundations and analytical dimensions
- Part II New conceptual developments: Resource-based approach and analytical dimensions
- Part III The 10 public action resources
- Part IV Outlook and advice for practical application
- Conclusion: Strengths and weaknesses of the proposed approach
- References
- Index
9 - Money
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 April 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Preface
- Introduction
- Part I Foundations and analytical dimensions
- Part II New conceptual developments: Resource-based approach and analytical dimensions
- Part III The 10 public action resources
- Part IV Outlook and advice for practical application
- Conclusion: Strengths and weaknesses of the proposed approach
- References
- Index
Summary
Definition
This resource is indispensable to public policy actors in that it enables them to procure many other resources (for example, the promoters of a shopping centre exchange the resources money for law by financing the improvement of access to the site by public transport, pedestrians and cyclists in exchange for the granting of planning permission). This resource draws its importance from the fact that it is very easy to exchange, particularly as many actors enjoy a certain level of budgetary autonomy. This is precisely the reason why the annual and rigid budgetary process of public administrations is the subject of criticism by analysts who support the trend of new public management. They suggest that multi-annual budgets be replaced by service contracts which would enable the more flexible management of this resource. (Knoepfel et al, 2010: 62-3)
Specifics
The saying that ‘money has no smell’ (pecunia non olet) can give us the wrong idea, that is, that money should be seen as a ‘super resource’ and dominant in the hierarchy of all public action resources. In my view, this is not the case at all. First, it is important to differentiate this resource from the resource Property (administrative and financial assets) held in public or private hands. The constitutive values of administrative assets (which render an actor ‘rich’ or ‘poor’) are usually unsaleable and cannot therefore be converted into money. The value of financial assets, although convertible into money, is not always ‘available’ as it is associated with objects with varying degrees of saleability. Thus it is advisable not to consider financial assets as forming part of the resource Money in all cases.
Furthermore, the use of this resource, which is universally available in civil society, is far more limited and regulated than other public action resources in the public policy sphere (for example, measures to prevent corruption, misappropriation of funds and other abuses by the authorities, public procurement, the strict regulation of the use of subsidies). In this sense, as a public action resource, Money does indeed have a traceable ‘smell’ that is consciously regulated by multiple possession, behavioural and decisional institutional rules and, moreover, by substantive public policies (such as anti-money laundering policy and monetary policy).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Public Policy Resources , pp. 147 - 160Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2018