State rescaling and local governments' austerity policies across the USA, 2001-2008

State rescaling and economic convergence

“…The spatial logic of capitalism, frequently evoked (Keating, 2014). Thus, we can confirm an earlier assertion made by Gibbs and Jonas (2001, p. 274) that 'state territorial structures are neither fully determined by, nor indeed are necessarily functional to, the needs of (regional, national, global) capital' (cf., Lobao & Adua, 2011). Third, the findings also lend further support to econometric modelling-based studies of the impact of state rescaling on territorial cohesion (Rodríguez-Pose & Gill, 2005).…”

The geographies of austerity

“…In response to deep economic pains in middle class communities, major efforts are under way, from California to Maine, to balance budgets through major cuts in services, wages, benefits, and employment. (Wolff and Fraad-Wolff, 2011) In the US, the economic downturn has depressed state tax revenues while increasing the need for higher social spending on unemployment compensation, social support and the like (see Lobao and Adua, 2011;Walker and Bardhan, 2011). In some cases, political considerations have also contributed to undermining state finances.…”

Pushing austerity: state failure, municipal bankruptcy and the crises of fiscal federalism in the USA

“…Even if it has never been the dominant narrative in any explicit way, localized austerity has deep roots in the American model of fiscal federalism, which has been incubating budgetary crises at the state and local government levels for decades (see Kirkpatrick and Smith, 2011;Lobao and Adua, 2011;Levitin, 2012). The Great Recession that began in 2007 brought this to a head as never before, triggering unprecedented budget crises across all scales of the government system in the USA (see Pew Charitable Trusts, 2012;SBCTF, 2012).…”