Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-cnmwb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-19T22:07:31.888Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Understanding Local Government Responses to Fiscal Pressure: a Cross National Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Harold Wolman
Harold Wolman
Affiliation:
Urban InstituteWashington DC*
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Fiscally pressured local governments face the same basic choices in both the United States and the United Kingdom: whether to increase locally raised revenues in order to maintain existing services or to reduce local services. The article first posits a model of local government decision-making in response to fiscal pressure drawn primarily from organizational and systems theory. Local governments are viewed as organizations concerned with maintaining their equilibrium relationships with their external environment (public employees and their unions). The model suggests a series of hypotheses about how local government will respond to fiscal pressure. Case studies of fiscally pressured local governments in both the United States and the United Kingdom are then utilized to describe actual local responses and to assess the usefulness of the model. The article concludes by setting forth a rough hierarchy of preferred local responses.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Public Policy , Volume 3 , Issue 3 , August 1983 , pp. 245 - 263
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Cyert, R. and March, J. (1963) A Behavioral Theory of the Firm. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Danziger, J. (1978) Making Budgets: Public Resource Allocation. Berkeley, Calif.: Sage.Google Scholar
Davis, B. A. (1981) Local response to fiscal limitations: Updating the California experience. Urban Institute Research Paper. 1389–11 Washington DC.: The Urban Institute.Google Scholar
Easton, D. (1965) A Systems Analysis of Political Life. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Gramlich, E. M. (1979) State and local budget surpluses and the effect of federal macroeconomic policies. A study prepared for the Joint Economic Committee, 12 01, 1979.Google Scholar
Greenwood, R. (1981) Revenue increasing versus expenditure reducing. Unpublished manuscript. University of Birmingham Institute of Local Government.Google Scholar
Havan, C. and Susskind, L. (1982) Understanding the impacts of Massachusetts Proposition 2 ½, Year One. Paper given at American Society of Public Administration Conference,Honolulu,March 1982.21–5Google Scholar
Katz, D. and Kahn, R. (1966) The Social Psychology of Organizations. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Kirlin, J. (1982) The Political Economy of Fiscal Limits. Lexington, Mass.: Lexington.Google Scholar
Levine, C., Rubin, I. S. and Wolohojian, G. (1981) The Politics of Retrenchment. Beverly Hills, Sage.Google Scholar
Menchik, M. D., Pascal, A., DeTray, D., Fernandez, J. and Caggiano, M. (1982) Fiscal restraint in local government. The Rand Corporation.Google Scholar
Mesavovic, M. D., Sanders, J. L. and Sprague, C. F. (1968) An axiomatic approach to organization from a general systems viewpoint. In Cooper, W. W. et al. (eds), New Perspectives in Organizational Research, New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Musgrave, R. (1981) Leviathan cometh or does he. In H. P. Ladd and T. N. Tideman (eds), Tax and Expenditure Limitations. COUPE Papers on Public Economies, no. 5. Washington DC: The Urban Institute.Google Scholar
Newton, K. (1980) Balancing the Books: Financial Problems of Local Government in Europe. Beverly Hills, California: Sage.Google Scholar
Peterson, G., Humphrey, N., Miller, M. and Wilson, P. (1983) The Future of America's Capital Plant. Washington DC: The Urban Institute.Google Scholar
Simon, H. and March, J. (1958) Organizations. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Simon, H., Smithburg, D. and Thompson, V. (1950) Public Administration. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Wolman, H. (1981) The fiscal consequences of urban population decline in Western nations. Urban Institute Project Report 3026–01 Washington DC: The Urban institute.Google Scholar
Wolman, H. (1982) The fiscal problem of US cities, Local Government Studies, 03–04.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolman, H. (1984) Local government fiscal pressure in the United States and the United Kingdom. In Jackson, P. (ed.), Central City Fiscal Problems, forthcoming.Google Scholar
Wolman, H. and Peterson, G. (1981) State and local government strategies for responding to fiscal pressure, Tulane Law Review, 55 (3).Google Scholar