By analysing two countries that have recently undergone NPM reform at the municipal level (Germany and Italy), our investigation challenges two popular notions: (1) that an audit explosion occurs as a result of reform, and (2) that reform causes change, i.e., that actors within a changing institutional context automatically adapt. Our empirically-derived observations are of (1) an audit implosion, and (2) institutional, cultural, and political conditions that trump any automatic adaptation to change. Indeed, these conditions – not audit reform per se – can shape the process and determine the direction of change. Recalcitrance, the stubborn resistance to and defiance of authority or guidance, is an interesting characteristic of some institutions. German auditors illustrate this nicely; our Italian case study demonstrates a mandatory dismantling of institutional inertia. By analysing the causal relationship between public management reforms and auditing, our research highlights the factors that prevent auditors from adapting to contextual change and factors that render obedience. We test Power's audit explosion theory by operationalising it into five key components which are then evaluated within the landscapes of recent German and Italian municipal reform

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