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

• Published date: 01 March 2015
• Date: 01 March 2015
• Author: Henrik Jacobsen
• DOI: http://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.