Principles and International Practice. The government budget should be the financial mirror of a well-informed publics choices, and careful public expenditure management is at the core of a well-functioning state. However, most people view budgeting as the epitome of eye-glazing subjects, the core concepts are rarely explained in a way that is understandable to the non-specialist, and theyre too often presented without adequate consideration of a countrys governance and institutional capacity. Government Budgeting and Expenditure Management redresses both of these failings and does so in comparative international perspective.