Fiscal Governance in Europe

Half-title......Page 3
Series-title......Page 5
Title......Page 7
Copyright......Page 8
Contents......Page 9
Acknowledgments......Page 11
1 Introduction......Page 13
Our Approach......Page 15
Outline of the Rest of the Book......Page 20
2 Electoral and Fiscal Institutions and Forms of Fiscal Governance......Page 24
Explanations from Economics......Page 25
Deficits and ‘‘Raw’’ Politics......Page 27
Fiscal Rules......Page 29
Political Economy of Government Budgeting......Page 31
The Budget Process within Cabinet Governments......Page 36
Decentralized Budgeting: Fiefdom......Page 37
The Delegation Form of Fiscal Governance: A Strong Finance Minister......Page 40
Negotiating Fiscal Contracts......Page 45
Comparison of the Two Ideal Approaches......Page 47
Political Competition and Ideological Distance......Page 50
Office-Seeking Competition......Page 51
Ideological Differences......Page 53
Predictions about the Ideal Form of Fiscal Governance......Page 61
3 An Account of Fiscal Norms and Rules in the European Union from 1985 to 2004......Page 64
The Structure of the Budget Process: Elements of Centralization......Page 65
Budget Processes in European Countries, 1985 to 2004......Page 68
Formation of the Budget in Government: Fiscal Targets and the Structure of Negotiations......Page 70
Structure of the Parliamentary Process......Page 74
Budget Execution......Page 77
Informativeness of the Budget Draft......Page 79
Relationship between National and Subnational Governments......Page 80
Aggregating the Indices into Measures of Delegation and Contracts......Page 83
4 How Forms of Fiscal Governance Affect Fiscal Performance......Page 88
Fiscal Discipline and Fiscal Institutions: Debts and Deficits......Page 89
Introduction......Page 105
Descriptive Statistics and Simple Tests of Efficiency......Page 107
Toward a Political Economy of Forms of Fiscal Governance and Budgetary Projections......Page 114
Multivariate Analysis......Page 117
Introduction......Page 120
Descriptive Statistics on the Role of Forms of Governance......Page 121
Multivariate Analysis......Page 125
Conclusion......Page 128
5 Why Do Countries Have Different Fiscal Institutions?......Page 129
Argument......Page 131
Bivariate Comparisons......Page 135
Multivariate Analysis......Page 144
The Dutch Example......Page 146
Conclusion......Page 149
6 Institutional Choice in New Democracies......Page 151
Delegation and Contract Indices......Page 152
The Gleich Index......Page 155
Institutional Choice......Page 157
Empirical Analysis......Page 163
Next Steps – The Development of Fiscal Institutions in Poland......Page 169
Conclusion......Page 175
Appendix 1: Characterization of CEEC Budgeting Institutions......Page 176
Appendix 2: Data......Page 180
7 EMU and Fiscal Governance in Europe......Page 182
The Excessive Deficit Procedure and the Stability and Growth Pact......Page 183
The Stability and Growth Pact......Page 186
Stability Pact Crisis and Reform......Page 187
Government Debt, Deficits, and Spending......Page 189
Discretionary Fiscal Policy......Page 191
EMU Fiscal Rules and the Budget Process......Page 197
Projections and Compliance under EMU......Page 201
Preserving Sustainable Public Finances: A Sustainability Council for EMU......Page 203
Mandate......Page 204
Method of Operation......Page 206
Enforcement......Page 207
Independence, Accountability, and Transparency......Page 208
Appointments, Composition, and Resources......Page 210
8 Conclusion......Page 211
Contributions to Policy Debates......Page 213
Contribution to Theoretical Debates......Page 216
Future Research......Page 221
Bibliography......Page 225
Index......Page 239