ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book provides insight into austerity and its effects on public management. It shows that the current austerity appears to reinforce the existing 'post-New Public Management' tendencies in the direction of centralisation, larger-scale organisations and coordination. The book describes the crisis and the turn to austerity in the five European countries: Germany, Italy, Denmark, Ireland, and Estonia. It compares the cutback strategies and measures and their budgetary reforms. The book considers the consequences of austerity for four components of public management reform: financial management, organisational issues, personnel management, and the use of performance measurements. It discusses the main findings related to the main research questions: What is the character of changes to public management under austerity? Does austerity involve path-breaking and/or path-dependent change? and why are different and/or similar patterns found in different countries? The book presents a comparative analysis and conclusion.
