This study has focussed on budget setting in coalition
and minority governments. This extends our understanding
of the manner in which budgets are negotiated
in these contexts. However, there is scope for further
research. First, this study is based on the experiences of
the Scottish Parliament. It would be interesting to see the
study of budgetary mechanisms in different study settings,
using the frameworks deployed in this paper. Second, the
impression of budgetary systems in control – as evidenced
in the era of a strong coalition government in Scotland
– merits further investigation. The processes of budget
setting behind the veil of the central government machine
would be an interesting area of further study. This would
be a study of what Clegg calls ‘episodic power’ – ‘behindthe
scenes’ budget negotiations, rather than the formal
processes of budget setting. Finally, this paper started
and ended with the concept of incremental budgeting in
governmental activities. However, the resource allocation
contexts which were studied in this paper were mainly
of the relatively straightforward situation of increasing
budgets over time. This era of budget growth and budget
certainty may be coming to a close at a time when public
finances are under increasing strain. This raises interesting
questions over how budgetary processes would unfold in
an environment when budget cuts were the order of the
day. For example, will coalition agreements be maintained
in an era of frugality in public finance? Or, for example,
will the narcissism of minor differences hold as strong a
sway over the political contestants, as government seeks
budget reductions? The area of government budgeting is
one which continues to merit further study.