Tackling Crises and Austerity: Reconsidering the Relevance of Governmental Capacities for Resilience

At the time of writing, we are witnessing a new global crisis affecting our societies and economies. The Covid-19 Pandemic and the Ukrainian war are only the most recent of a long chain of shocks and crises. Others include 9/11 and several other terrorist attacks, the global financial crisis, refugee and immigration challenges, and a myriad of accelerating climate-change impacts. Individually, these have each caused major immediate disruptions; taken together, they have resulted in significant, and lasting, global effects on our societies and economies. Governments have been consistently on the frontline to tackle crises, although, at times, it appears their responses to them have been slow and inadequate. Given this, it seems appropriate that more emphasis should be placed on the resilience (that is, the capacity to deal with shocks and uncertainty) of governments in the face of such a context. Taking stock of past research on resilient approaches adopted by local governments in times of austerity, this chapter argues the need for such a resilient perspective. In particular, it puts emphasis on how governments can build on existing capacities, or invest in new ones, in order to anticipate and cope with difficult times in an attempt to ensure public-service provision functions effectively and efficiently despite the challenges. An aspect of the chapter explores the extent to which NPM can support (or hamper) the development of such capacities, as well as the role played by accounting in shaping them.