Between voters and Eurocrats : how do governments justify their budgets? / Johannes Karremans.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Karremans, Johannes, author.

Series:

Oxford scholarship online.

Oxford scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Expenditures, Public--Social aspects--European Union countries.

Expenditures, Public.

Expenditures, Public--Political aspects--European Union countries.

Physical Description:

1 online resource : illustrations

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2024.

Summary:

Karremans investigates the concern that financial considerations are more important than people's demands through the comparative study of five countries - Austria, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain - and explores how governments maintain a balance between institutional responsibility and democratic responsiveness.

Contents:

Cover

Half Title

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Preface

Contents

List of Figures

List of Tables

1. How can governments legitimize their budgets?

Introduction

Democratic legitimacy and its historical roots

Populist and technocratic challenges

Are we losing the balance?

Finding responsiveness and responsibility

Five eurozone countries in a tumultuous decade

Structure of the book

2. The coding of annual budget plans

Selecting comparable and relevant texts

Distinguishing relevant from 'cheap' talk

The categorization of policy references

The coding of justifications

The codification of responsiveness and responsibility

Ready to start comparing

3. Is globalization reducing responsiveness?

The ambiguity behind macroeconomic trends

Lessons from policymaking in hard times

Cross-time comparisons in France and Austria

France

Austria

What is there left to find out?

4. Responsiveness and responsibility under European economic governance

Predictors for responsiveness and responsibility

Responsiveness and responsibility 2007-2019

Responsiveness and responsibility in 2020

Regular patterns or a sequence of imbalances?

5. Policy justifications under technocratic and populist cabinets

Italy as a laboratory for political research

Following European patterns

Evidence of populist and technocratic imbalances

Evidence of institutional resilience

The importance of accountability mechanisms

6. National variations of responsiveness

Austria: balancing equality and entrepreneurship

Germany: administration of a fiscal surplus

France: attempts to reduce the tax burden

Italy: making use of flexibility clauses

Spain: rewarding state officials.

Partisan choices and national path dependency

7. Fiscal responsibility between the Fiscal Compact and the Recovery Fund

European institutions changing their minds?

Theorizing changing notions of responsibility

Responsibility under the spell of austerity

Fiscal responsibility in 2020

To conclude

8. Explaining the balance between responsiveness and responsibility in the eurozone

The room for manoeuvre that governments perceive to have

Who defines what governments can and cannot do?

Supranational institutions are not immune from electoral pressures

Future research avenues

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Also issued in print: 2024.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource and publisher information; title from PDF title page (viewed on December 16, 2023).

Other Format:

Print version :

ISBN:

0-19-198162-1

0-19-288659-2

0-19-288660-6

OCLC:

1414975478