Hoe de Nederlandse Overheid omging met de Crisis

Dit artikel beschrijft hoe de Nederlandse overheid is omgegaan met de financiële bankencrisis in 2008, de economische crisis in 2009 en de budgettaire crisis in 2010. Wat heeft de Nederlandse overheid in die drie fasen van de crisis gedaan, en hoe zagen de politieke en ambtelijke besluitvormingsprocessen er uit? Tijdens de bankencrisis in 2008 vond sterk gecentraliseerd crisismanagement plaats. Het economische herstelpakket van 2009 was een aanvulling op het regeerakkoord. Het bezuinigingspakket van 2010 was de uitkomst van de coalitievorming. Naast de ‘politieke wereld’ lijkt ook een ‘financieel-economische wereld’ te hebben bestaan, waarin budgetdiscipline overheerste. Men krijgt de indruk dat de financiële kaders, de bezuinigingsbedragen in die wereld werden vastgesteld, en dat de politieke wereld ging over de beleidsinhoudelijke invulling binnen die kaders. De crisis lijkt invloed te hebben gehad op de verhouding tussen politieke en ambtelijke besluitvorming

Distinctiveness in the Study of Public Management in Europe. A Historical-institutional Analysis of France, Germany and Italy

Session 4: Public ManagementThis paper presents three clear examples of distinctive approaches to the study of public management, that is, in France, Germany and Italy, three countries with peculiar legalistic state traditions. Per country first a historical sketch of state and administration is given, then the administrative (public management) reforms are described, subsequently the state of art of administrative sciences, and finally the specificness of the study of public management. The historical-institutional context of a particular state and administration apparently does influence not only the form and content of the administrative ‘public management’ reforms but also the scientific study of public management in that country

Influence of the EU (and the IMF) on domestic cutback management: a nine-countries comparative analysis.

The influence of the EU (and the IMF) on domestic cutback management were studied in nine European countries. In this concluding article, a cross-country comparative analysis is presented. The influence of the EU and the IMF being most evident in bailed-out countries, we first take a closer look at the loan programmes in Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain, plus the hardly-known earlier bailouts in Hungary and Latvia. We then turn to two factors that influence cutbacks and reforms: economics and politics. Finally, the concept of the influence of the EU (and the IMF) is differentiated into degrees and types of influence

On both sides of the Atlantic, downtown shops need to stick together to survive

Downtowns on both sides of the Atlantic have been under threat for decades: first from the rise of suburban malls, and now from the growing popularity of internet shopping. In new research which studies a century of retail change in Detroit and The Hague, Conrad Kickert and Rainer vom Hofe find that the closer shops are to each other, the ..

EU-driven public sector reforms

This paper is the introduction article to the special issue on EU-driven public sector reforms. European Union (EU) governance has dramatically changed since the outburst of the financial, economic and fiscal crises in 2007–2008. The dramatically changed circumstances have led to heightened EU influence in the field of the organization of the public sector of Member States, leading to major reforms of the public sector of Member States under conditions of radical fiscal consolidation. We call these ‘EU-driven public sector reforms’. The Greek, Hungarian, Irish and Italian cases of reform of the public sector in recent years accounted for in special issue: EU-driven public sector reforms are different instances, with diverse outcomes, of this phenomenon. This article reviews the theoretical perspectives that can be employed for the study of EU-driven public sector reforms – these include notably the policy of conditionality; Europeanization; and a combination of learning, leadership and multiple streams theories – and the evidence about the features, doctrinal contents and effects of such reforms arising from the four case studies in the special issue