A Century of Fiscal Squeeze Politics: 100 Years of Austerity, Politics, and Bureaucracy in Britain

by Christopher Hood, Rozana Himaz

Overview

This volume identifies and compares 'fiscal squeezes' (major efforts to cut public spending and/or raise taxes) in the UK over a century from 1900 to 2015. The authors examine how different the politics of fiscal squeeze and austerity is today from what it was a century ago, how (if at all) fiscal squeezes reshaped the state and the provision of public services, and how political credit and blame played out after austerity episodes. The analysis is both quantitative and qualitative, starting with reported financial outcomes from historical statistics and then going behind those numbers to explore the political choices and processes in play. This analysis identifies some patterns that have not been explained or even recognized in earlier works on retrenchment and austerity. For example, it identifies a long term shift from what it terms a 'surgery without anaesthetics' approach (deep but short-lived episodes of spending restraint or tax increases) in the earlier part of the period towards a 'boiling frogs' approach (episodes in which the pain is spread out over a longer period) in more recent decades. It also identifies a curious reduction of revenue-led squeezes in more recent decades, and a puzzle over why blame-avoidance logic only led to outsourcing painful decisions over squeeze in a minority of cases. Furthmore, the volume's distinctive distinctive approach to classifying types of fiscal squeezes and qualitatively assessing their intensity seeks to solve the puzzle as to why voter 'punishment' of governments that impose austerity policies seems to be so erratic.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198779612
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	08/08/2017
Pages:	262
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Christopher Hood, Gladstone Professor of Government Emeritus and Emeritus Fellow, All Souls College, University of Oxford,Rozana Himaz, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Oxford Brookes University

Christopher Hood (CBE, FBA) is Gladstone Professor of Government Emeritus and Emeritus Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and Visiting Professor at the Blavatnik School of Government, Univeristy of Oxford. His publications include A Government that Worked Better and Cost Less? (with Ruth Dixon, 2015, OUP), Forging a Discipline (with Desmond King and Gillian Peele, OUP, 2014), and When the Party's Over: The Politics of Fiscal Squeeze in Perspective (with David Heald and Rozana Himaz, OUP for the British Academy, Proceedings of the British Academy 197, 2014).

Rozana Himaz is Senior Lecturer in Economics at Oxford Brookes University. She works on issues pertaining to welfare, policy and the public sector. Her publications include When the Party's Over: The Politics of Fiscal Squeeze in Perspective (with Christopher Hood and David Heald, OUP for the British Academy, Proceedings of the British Academy 197, 2014).

Table of Contents

Part One: Background and Overview1. Setting the Scene: The Politics of Austerity and Fiscal Squeeze2. UK Fiscal Squeezes over a Century: A Summary ComparisonPart Two: Selected Periods of Fiscal Squeeze Over a Century3. World War I and the 1920s: From Tax Squeeze Through Double Squeeze to Spending Squeeze4. The 1930s Squeeze: From Revenue Squeeze to Spending Squeeze via Political Crisis5. World War II and the 1940s Labour Austerity6. The 'Stop-Go' Squeezes of the 1950s and 1960s7. Stagflation, Recession, Currency Crisis and Political Crisis8. 'Rolling Back the State'? Fiscal Squeeze, Thatcher-Style9. Fiscal Squeeze in the 1990s: Tales of the Unexpected10. After the 2008 Financial Crash: The early 2010sPart Three: Patterns and Lessons11. Conclusions: from the Past to the Future of Fiscal SqueezeStatistical Appendix