I contribute to the literature by providing additional factors that could affect the incremental budgeting theory and punctuated equilibrium theory (PET) within a budgetary context. Because of the fluctuation in the price of natural resources, I argue that dependence on natural resources could lead to less stable budgets than ones not dependent on natural resources. I also argue that democracy is another source that leads to stability in the budget, relative to countries that are not democratic. I theorize that countries with no democracy and heavy dependence on natural resources will have budgets with more volatility than the rest of the countries. Most of the extant literature focuses on countries that are democratic and not dependent on natural resources. My theory expects these to have the most stable budgets. I extend the literature by comparing the Kuwaiti National Budget (dependent on natural resources and not democratic) to the U.S. Federal Budget (democratic and not dependent on natural resources). The results of all tests are consistent with the expectations of the theory that countries with no democracy and heavy dependence on natural resources have less incremental budgets than nations that are democratic and not dependent on natural resources.

Budgetering är en central del för att planera och styra kommunala finanser, vars utveckling är beroende av samhällsekonomisk utveckling. Under 2020 drabbades världen av en pandemi som orsakade en ekonomisk kris världen över, med undantag från bland annat svenska kommuner. Tidigare forskning kring kommunal budgetering i ekonomiskt svåra tider tyder på att stram budgetering är en viktig faktor för att klara ekonomiska kriser medan andra menar att sådana åtgärder ofta undviks. Tidigare forskning pekar även på kommuners beroende av statliga bidrag ökar vilket även hämmar benägenheten att tillta åtstramande åtgärder. Studien har syftat till att undersöka om och i sådana fall hur Covid-19-pandemin har påverkat västsvenska kommuners budgetprocess och budget som planerings- och styrverktyg. För att uppnå detta genomfördes en kvalitativ multipel fallstudie på fem västsvenska kommuner, med intervjuer och en kompletterande dokumentanalys. Resultatet visade att varken budgetprocessen, eller budget som planerings- eller styrverktyg har påverkats i så stor utsträckning utav Covid-19. Resultatet visade även att de statliga bidragen till följd av Covid-19 har haft en hämmande effekt på åtgärder. Vidare visar studien att budgetmetodiken inte förändrats. / Budgeting is a central part of planning and controlling municipal finances, where growth is dependent on macroeconomic factors. During 2020 the world was hit by a pandemic that caused an economic crisis across the world, with an exception from Swedish municipalities. Earlier research on municipal budgeting in times of economic crisis suggest that a tight budgeting is an important factor when it comes to managing economic crisis while others suggest that such measures often get avoided. Earlier research also suggests that municipalities spending and dependency on governmental grants increase when the latter increase, which also inhibits tightening measures. The purpose of this study has been to examine if and if so, how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the budget process, budget as a tool for control and planning for municipalities in western Sweden. To achieve this, we have conducted a qualitative multiple case study in five western Swedish municipalities through interviews and complementary content analysis. The results show that neither the budget process nor the budget as a tool for planning or control has been affected by Covid-19 to such an extent. The results also showed that the governmental grants due to Covid-19 has had a mitigating effect on measures. Moreover, the study shows that the budget methodology has not changed.