Chapter 11 focuses on the budget, the budget process, and budget execution. The budget shapes public policy decisions as well as the national economy. Budget preparation at any level of government includes a set of spending and revenue plans combined in a single document. The top-down approach encourages broad targets for overall spending and revenues. The bottom-up approach emphasizes incrementalism, which focuses on the distribution battles inside the budget.

At the federal level the budget process often permits political game-playing between the president and Congress. As of the 1921 Budget and Accounting Act, the president has been expected to submit an annual budget to Congress. Congress authorizes expenditures and determines how revenues shall be obtained. The legislature essentially rules the budget appropriations phase of budgeting, and the executive is overseer of the execution phase.