The Global Financial Crisis has led to a renewed attention for the management of public debt and deficits of advanced and developing industrial states. To successfully deal with such problems of public finances raises particular concerns in federal states where fiscal competencies are split between two levels of government.

This book offers comparative in-depth knowledge of political struggles related to fiscal consolidation policies in eleven federal states since the 1990s, including the Global Financial Crisis and its aftermath. It identifies conditions that lead to "robust" solutions that can both commit federal actors to prudent fiscal policy-making and avoid conflicts between federal actors that cause federal instability.

This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of political economy and comparative politics in general and comparative federalism and EU Politics in particular.

"...a rich empirical collection that scholars of fiscal federalism will much appreciate. The eclectic combination of concepts in the book's analytical framework allows for a rather flexible empirical investigation that is adapted to each country... This approach results in broad and rich empirical analyses..." - Fabio Wasserfallen, University of Salzburg and University of Zurich, Book Review in Swiss Political Science Review (2018) Vol. 24(2): 204-214.