Public Management in Times of Austerity. A Literature Review: Paper prepared for 20th Annual Conference of the IRSPM, China City University of Hong Kong and The Polytechnic University of Hong Kong

This paper represents the first draft of a second chapter for a forthcoming volume on Public
Management in Times of Austerity. The book focuses on the management of two austerity policies,
budgetary reform and expenditure cutbacks, in five European countries. The paper presents a
review of literatures on budgetary- and financial management reform and on cutback management.
On this basis, a set of propositions is formulated concerning the character (the hows) of budgetary
reforms and cutback management in the present age of austerity and concerning the significance of
varying economic and institutional factors (the whys) to the management of budgetary reform and
cutbacks. It is, for example, argued that fiscal discipline may in the short term crowd out those
performance-oriented reforms that are meant to improve operational efficiency whereas in the
longer term higher levels of fiscal pressure may lead to budgetary reforms that aim at improving
allocative effectiveness across organizational borders in government. In this respect, the present
conditions of austerity are expected to reinforce the ongoing transformation of reform trajectories
from the principles of the NPM towards those of ‘post-NPM’ reform.