Introduction: Local Public Services in Times of Austerity

Abstract

This chapter presents the aims and the structure of the book, introducing a general framework for the discussion of austerity policies and their impact on Local Public Service in the Mediterranean Europe. It intends to display the economic and political background of the austerity agenda in the European Union (EU) as well as its main tools such as lending agreements’ conditionalities and financial instruments provided by the ‘troika’, namely the representatives of the EU institutions and the IMF. After discussing the policies of austerity in Europe, the chapter focuses on the consequences of fiscal consolidation with a special regard to the geography of its impact on public services in the selected Mediterranean countries. In the second part, the theoretical and interpretative perspectives are discussed through a neo-institutionalist approach and a policy transfer frame of analysis in order to scrutinize processes and outcomes. Research objectives, comparative research design, and cases selection are debated in the end of chapter.