Local government in times of global challenges

Abstract

The Financial Crisis since 2007 is one of the most important challenges in recent decades. Starting with financing problems in the United States’ real estate market, the financial difficulties developed into a major crisis affecting nearly all economic sectors in industrial countries. Next to citizens and private companies, the public sector was – and partially still is – affected by the Financial Crisis, thereby implying a variety of direct and indirect implications for public budgets.On closer inspection, the impact of and responses to the Financial Crisis involved all levels of government, depending on the division of tasks and responsibilities within systems of multi-level governance. While the roles of the national, supranational, and international levels during the Crisis were widely reported in news coverage and academic research, the implications for sub-national government has received far less attention.The main intentions of this study are to analyse how the Financial Crisis affected the financial situation of the local level of government in the Netherlands and its approximately 400 municipalities and to identify the factors that determined variation. By following a multidisciplinary approach, the study combines theoretical considerations from the academic disciplines of public administration, political science, economics, law, psychology, and sociology.