Voting budgets in parliament – a representative institution – ensured that the people as a whole were liable for the obligations incurred by their government. They would thus have a powerful incentive to impose controls on spending to insure that their claims could be met.
17世纪末，英国爆发了光荣革命，革了挥霍无度的专制的斯图亚特王朝的命，威廉和玛丽获得王冠后成立的英国政府采取了新的债务措施。议会——代议制机构——对预算进行投票，这保证了作为一个整体的人民需要为其政府产生的债务承担责任。因此，他们有了强大的激励对支出予以控制，以确保他们的债务可以偿付。