PUBLIC BUDGETING & FINANCE

by | Mar 7, 2018 | Home Science

A. Micro Essays
Define and identify the significance to U.S. public budgeting & finance of five out of the six terms/concepts/cases below in about 1/2 to 1 page each. [1 point each; 5 total]

1. politics 4. revenue bond
2. incrementalism 5. rational choice model of decision making
3. continuing resolution 6. executive budget system

B. Major Integrative Essays Answer TWO of the following questions with as much detail as you can, using as many examples as you can. [10 points each; 20 points total]

7. Public budgeting scholars often extol the merits of the data produced by alternatives to the line-item budgeting system traditionally used in the U.S. Define, describe, compare and contrast line-item budgeting, performance budgeting, program budgeting, and zero-based budgeting in terms of ease of use, clarity, transparency, strengths, weaknesses, and any other criteria you find valuable. If the alternatives to line-item budgets provide good data, why are they not utilized more often? Discuss at length.

8. Compare and contrast the public budgetary process of the U.S. national government with that of at least one other nation over time in great detail. Give your estimation of the economic outlook/prospects for each.

9. Compare and contrast the budgetary processes of the Classical Era and today in the U.S., in great detail.

Continued-
10. Discuss in great detail capital budgeting in the U.S. compared with at least one other country. Be sure to talk about whether each nation has a capital budget or not, as well as the decision-making processes used to decide what kinds of projects are undertaken and how much of the national economy (GDP) is accounted for by national-level capital spending.

11. Pick an agency (government or nonprofit). Describe the agency and its function, and then give concrete examples of inputs, outputs, and outcomes relevant to the core function of this agency. Which of these three elements does a traditional line-item budget focus on? What kinds of performance measures (outcomes or outputs) will the agency tend to propose? Why? Which (outputs or outcomes) will the principal funder (legislative, executive, or other funder in the case of a nonprofit) attempt to compel the agency to use? Why? Discuss at length.

 

 

 

Sample Solution

Sample solution

Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell. 

In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.


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God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.

Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.

To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.

 

References

Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.

Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies, 4(8), 487.

Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.

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