The
power of the purse is the ability of one group to
manipulate and control the actions of another group by withholding funding, or putting stipulations on the use of funds. The power of the purse can be used
positively (e.g. awarding extra funding to programs that reach certain benchmarks) or
negatively (e.g. removing funding for a department or program, effectively eliminating it). The power of the purse is most often utilized by forces within a government that do not have direct
executive power, but have control over
budgets and
taxation.