ABSTRACT

This chapter includes case studies of cutback management and budgetary reform from five European countries: Germany, Italy, Denmark, Ireland and Estonia. It presents the reader with comparative information concerning the economic crisis and the political and administrative systems in the case countries. The chapter describes the influence of the global financial and economic crisis in the case countries before providing comparative information on the other, intermediating, factors in one's model on public management reform; that is, the political and administrative systems and public management reform trajectories. It also describes how the case countries were affected by each stage of the crisis. The chapter focuses on two features that can be described comparatively with relative ease: the type of government and the constitutional protection of subnational government. It also focuses on the vertical decentralisation or centralisation of the cases described through their basic state structure and the proportion of employees working at the central level of government.