Contextualizing Public Sector Cutbacks? Moving Toward a Comparative Historical Perspective on the Politics of Fiscal Squeeze

Published date01 March 2015
Date01 March 2015
AuthorHenrik Jacobsen
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12341
Book Reviews 331
Henrik Jacobsen is a graduate
student in comparative government in the
Department of Politics and International
Relations at the University of Oxford.
He received his bachelor’s degree (with
distinction) in international politics from
Jacobs University in Bremen, Germany.
His research interests focus on topics in
executive government such as austerity,
performance measurement, transparency,
and urban policies.
E-mail: henrik.jacobsen@bnc.ox.ac.uk
who are familiar with the literature on austerity and
cutback management will discover new perspectives
and arguments in this innovative volume. Overall,
Fiscal Squeeze makes a unique contribution to a more
nuanced understanding of periods of f‌i scal stress that
will shape our views on the historical contingency
of the politics of f‌i scal squeeze for many years of
academic research to come.
e book consists of 12 chapters ref‌l ecting a twofold
structure: three theoretically oriented chapters that
provide a frame for nine case studies, which form the
core of this volume. In the f‌i rst chapter, “ e Politics
of Fiscal Squeeze,” Hood and Heald present the cen-
tral ideas underlying Fiscal Squeeze. e authors intro-
duce the concept of “f‌i scal squeeze,” which denotes
the “political ef‌f ort put into reining public spending
and/or raising taxes” (4). Emphasizing the political
ef‌f ort of policy makers, the book makes an important
intervention into current literature to look beyond
f‌i nancial accounting numbers. Moreover, drawing
on the terminology of “f‌i scal squeeze,” this work tells
us to be cautious about using such ambiguous and
normatively charged terms as “austerity” and “cutback
management.”
Christopher Hood, David Heald, and Rozanna Himaz,
eds., When the Party’s Over:  e Politics of Fiscal
Squeeze in Comparative Perspective (Oxford, UK:
Oxford University Press, 2014). 277 pp. $90.00
(cloth), ISBN: 9780197265734.
Can we still learn something new about the
much-debated phenomenon of f‌i scal crisis,
after several decades of research?  is ques-
tion assumes perennial importance under the cur-
rently dire economic conditions in various Western
democracies. Many observers are likely to agree that
this crisis poses unique challenges for many states.
However, a recent British Academy publication titled
When the Party’s Over:  e Politics of Fiscal Squeeze
in Comparative Perspective allows us to contextual-
ize the implications of the f‌i nancial crisis for states
around the world by means of nine historical case
studies of f‌i scal squeezes during the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries. Edited by Christopher Hood,
David Heald, and Rozanna Himaz, Fiscal Squeeze
presents the f‌i ndings of a three-year-long Economic
and Social Research Council project that brought
together a unique group of scholars to discuss the
political implications of f‌i scal squeezes. Even readers
Contextualizing Public Sector Cutbacks? Moving Toward
a Comparative Historical Perspective on the Politics
of Fiscal Squeeze
Sonia M. Ospina and Rogan Kersh, Editors
Henrik Jacobsen
University of Oxford, United Kingdom
Public Administration Review,
Vol. 75, Iss. 2, pp. 331–333. © 2015 by
The American Society for Public Administration.
DOI: 10.1111/puar.12341.

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