Originally published in 1961, this book became widely used as a textbook, as an important source of primary data on British government expenditure statistics and as the point of departure for further empirical and analytical studies of the behaviour of governments. The book was recognised as one of the formative influences in the development of a positive theory of government expenditure which sought to explain the size and structure of the system of public finance rather than justify it

Devon Mothersille is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers and Managing Director of three specialist ground anchor consultancies. He was Convenor of the committee responsible for drafting the European standard for the testing grouted anchors (EN ISO 22477-5: 2018), Chairman of the UK Ground Anchors Panel and was one of the technical authors for the revision of the British Standard Code of Practice for Grouted Anchors (BS8081: 2015+A2:2018), CIRIA Report C794 (Grouted Anchors and Soil Nails: Inspection, Condition Assessment and Remediation) and the Institution of Civil Engineers Manual of Geotechnical Engineering (Second Edition).

Donald Bruce is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and the American Society of Civil Engineers. He is the President of speciality consultancy, Geosystems LP, and participates in numerous Boards of Consultants for major dam projects in the US and in many other countries. He was active in the drafting of several Post Tensioning Institute editions of ‘Recommendations for Rock and Soil Anchors’. He is the coauthor of ‘Ground Control and Improvement’ (1994) and ‘Dam Foundation Grouting’ (2007) and editor of ‘Specialty Construction Techniques for Dam and Levee Remediation’ (2013). He is the recipient of several national engineering awards relating to specialty geotechnical processes and dam safety in the US and has been involved in the design, construction and performance of anchors for over 50 years.

Stuart Littlejohn is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Engineering, an Emeritus Professor at the University of Bradford, UK, and a former Technical Director with contractor Colcrete. He was chairman of the FIP State-of- the- Art Report ‘Corrosion and Corrosion Protection of Prestressed Ground Anchorages’, of the British Standards Committee for Britain’s first ground anchor code of practice (BS8081:1989), of the ICE’s Ground Engineering Board and the UK steering group charged with producing national guidelines on planning, design, procurement, specification and quality management of site investigation work.