Many U.S. local governments experienced fiscal challenges in the wake of the 2007–2009 Great Recession. This article examines the resulting retrenchment choices, focusing on two research questions. First, are local governments’ choices in any meaningful way rational strategies? Some previous research has concluded that retrenchment behavior is the idiosyncratic product of irrational “garbage-can” decision making. Exploratory factor analysis of data from the International City/County Management Association's 2009 State of the Profession Survey identified patterns of retrenchment actions that are classifiable as coherent strategies. Second, do the strategies correspond to sector-specific or “generic” models of organizational choice and adaptation to circumstances? the observed strategies fit better with a generic resource-dependency framework of strategic choice than with public sector-specific, stages-of-retrenchment models. Regression results suggest modest associations between retrenchment strategies and several characteristics of local governments and their contexts identified by previous research as relevant.
AndrewsR., BoyneG. A., & WalkerR. M. (2006) “Strategy content and organizational performance: An empirical analysis”, Public Administration Review, 66(1):52–63.
2.
ArnettS. (2011) Fiscal stress in the U.S. states: An analysis of measures and responses (Ph.D. dissertation), Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, accessed March 3, 2013 (http://hdl.handle.net/1853/42860).
3.
BartleJ. R. (1996) “Coping with cutbacks: City response to aid cuts in New York state”, State & Local Government Review, 28(1):38–48.
4.
BillerR. P. (1980) “Leadership Tactics for Retrenchment”, Public Administration Review, 40(6):604–609.
5.
BourdeauxC. (2012) The political economy of cutting budgets, paper presented at the annual conference of the Association for Budgeting and Financial Management, New York.
6.
BoyneG. A., & WalkerR. M. (2004) “Strategy content and public service organizations”, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 14(2):231–252.
7.
BozemanB. (2010) “Hard lessons from hard times: Reconsidering and reorienting the ‘managing decline’ literature”, Public Administration Review, 70(4):557–563.
8.
CameronK. S., & ZammutoR. F. (1983) “Matching managerial strategies to conditions of decline”, Human Resource Management, 22(4):359–374.
9.
ClarkC., & WalterB. O. (1991) “Urban political cultures, financial stress, and city fiscal austerity strategies”, The Western Political Quarterly, 44(3):676–697.
10.
ClarkT. N., & FergusonL. C. (1983) City money: Political processes, fiscal strain, and retrenchment, New York: Columbia University Press.
11.
CohenM. D., MarchJ. G., & OlsenJ. P. (1972) “A garbage can model of organizational choice”, Administrative Science Quarterly, 17(1):1–25.
12.
DoughertyM. J., & KlaseK. A. (2009) “Fiscal retrenchment in state budgeting: Revisiting cutback management in a new era”, International Journal of Public Administration, 32(7):593–619.
13.
DownsG. W., & RockeD. M. (1984) “Theories of budgetary decisionmaking and revenue decline”, Policy Sciences, 16(4):329–347.
14.
GlassbergA. (1978) “Organizational responses to municipal budget decreases”, Public Administration Review, 38(4):325–332.
15.
GuoH., & NeshkovaM. (2014, March 17) Fiscal severity and the choice of budget gap-closing strategies, paper presented at the annual conference of the American Society for Public Administration, Washington, DC.
JimenezB. S. (2013) “Raise taxes, cut services, or lay off staff: Citizens in the fiscal retrenchment process”, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory24(4):923–953. doi: 10.1093/jopart/mut018.
18.
JohnsonB. L.Jr. (1998) “Resource dependence theory”, in: ShafritzJ. M. (ed), International Encyclopedia of Public Policy and Administration, Vol. 3, pp. 1968–1974, Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
19.
LevineC. H. (1978) “Organizational Decline and Cutback Management”, Public Administration Review, 38(4):316–325.
20.
LevineC. H. (1979) “More on Cutback Management: Hard Questions for Hard Times”, Public Administration Review, 39(2):179–183.
21.
LevineC. H., RubinI. S., & WolohojianG. G. (1981a) The politics of retrenchment: How local governments manage fiscal stress, Beverly Hills: Sage Publications.
22.
LevineC. H., RubinI. S., & WolohojianG. G. (1981b) “Resource scarcity and the reform model: The management of retrenchment in Cincinnati and Oakland”, Public Administration Review, 41(6):619–628.
23.
LevineC. H., RubinI. S., & WolohojianG. G. (1982) “Managing organizational retrenchment: Preconditions, deficiencies, and adaptations in the public sector”, Administration & Society, 14(1):101–136.
24.
LewisC. W., & LogalboA. T. (1980) “Cutback principles and practices: A checklist for managers”, Public Administration Review, 40(2):184–188.
25.
LewisG. B. (1984) “Municipal expenditures through thick and thin”, Publius: The Journal of Federalism, 14(2):31–39.
26.
LewisG. B. (1988) “The consequences of fiscal stress: Cutback management and municipal employment”, State & Local Government Review, 20(2):64–71.
27.
MacNairR. H., CaldwellR., & PollaneL. (1983) “Citizen participants in public bureaucracies: Foul-weather friends”, Administration & Society, 14(4):507–524.
28.
MaherC. S., & DellerS. C. (2007) “Municipal responses to fiscal stress”, International Journal of Public Administration, 30(12–14):1549–1572. doi: 10.1080/01900690701230184.
29.
MartinJ. K. (1982) Urban financial stress: Why cities go broke, Boston: Auburn House.
30.
MacManusS. A. (1993) “Budget battles: Strategies of local government officers during recession”, Journal of Urban Affairs, 15(3):293–307.
31.
MacManusS. A., & PammerW. J. (1990) “Cutbacks in the country: Rentrenchment in rural villages, townships, and counties”, Public Administration Quarterly, 14(3):302–323.
32.
MillerG. J., & SvaraJ. H. (Eds.). (2009) Navigating the fiscal crisis: Tested strategies for local leaders. Phoenix, AZ: Alliance for Innovation.
33.
MorganD. R., & EnglandR. E. (1983) “Explaining fiscal stress among large U.S. cities: Toward an integrative model”, Policy Studies Review, 3(1):73–78. doi: 10.1111/j.1541–1338.1983.tb00074.x.
34.
MorganD. R., & PammerW. J. (1988) “Coping with fiscal stress: Predicting the use of financial management practices among U.S. cities”, Urban Affairs Quarterly, 24(1):69–86.
35.
NelsonK. L. (2012) “Municipal choices during a recession: Bounded rationality and innovation”, State and Local Government Review, 44(1 suppl):44S–63S. doi: 10.1177/0160323x12452888.
36.
PaganoM. A. (1988) “Fiscal Disruptions and City Responses: Stability, Equilibrium, and City Capital Budgeting”, Urban Affairs Review, 24(1):118–137. doi: 10.1177/004208168802400107.
37.
PammerW. J.Jr. (1990) Managing fiscal strain in major American Cities: Understanding retrenchment in the public sector, New York: Greenwood Press.
38.
PandeyS. K. (2010) “Cutback management and the paradox of publicness”, Public Administration Review, 70(4):564–571.
39.
ParkinsS.-J. (2008) Budgeting in times of fiscal stress: Explaining strategies for reducing agency expenditures (Ph.D. Dissertation), Auburn University, Auburn, AL, accessed January 14, 2012 (http://hdl.handle.net/10415/1495).
40.
PetryJ. (2004, February) “Bringing rigor to cutback management: Eugene's constrained prioritization process”, Government Finance Review, 20:18–23.
41.
PfefferJ., & SalancikG. R. (1978) The external control of organizations: A resource dependence perspective, New York: Harper & Row.
42.
RubinI. S. (1982) Running in the red: The political dynamics of urban fiscal stress, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
43.
RyuJ. E. (2011) “Legislative professionalism and budget punctuations in state government sub-functional expenditures”, Public Budgeting & Finance, 31(2):22–42.
44.
SchickA. (1983) “Incremental budgeting in a decremental age”, Policy Sciences, 16(1):1–25.
45.
SchickA. (1988) “Micro-Budgetary adaptations to fiscal stress in industrialized democracies”, Public Administration Review, 48(1):523–533. doi: 10.2307/975515.
46.
Task Force on the State Government Budget Crisis. (2012, July 17) State Budget Crisis Task Force, accessed June 27, 2013, (http://www.statebudgetcrisis.org),.
47.
ThurmaierK. (1992) “Budgetary decisionmaking in central budget bureaus: An experiment”, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory2(4):463–487.
48.
WallinB. A. (2005) Budgeting for basics: The changing landscape of city finances. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.
49.
WeeksE. C. (2000) “The practice of deliberative democracy: Results from four large-scale trials”, Public Administration Review, 60(4):360–372.
50.
WildavskyA., & CaidenN. (1997) The new politics of the budgetary process (3rd ed.), New York: Longman.
51.
WolmanH. (1983) “Understanding Local Government Responses to Fiscal Pressure: A Cross National Analysis”, Journal of Public Policy, 3(3):245–263. doi: 10.2307/3998303.
52.
WolmanH., & PetersonG. (1981) “State and local government strategies for responding to fiscal pressure”, Tulane Law Review, 55(3):773–819.
53.
Wolman, H., with the assistance of Barbara Davis. (1980) “Local government strategies to cope with fiscal pressure”, in: LevineC. H. & RubinI. (eds) Fiscal stress and public policy, pp. 231–248, Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
54.
ZammutoR. F., & CameronK. S. (1982) “Environmental decline and organizational response”, Academy of Management Proceedings, 1982(1):250–254. doi: 10.5465/ambpp.1982.4976626.
55.
ZipfG. K. (1949) Human behavior and the principle of least effort: an introduction to human ecology, Cambridge, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Press.
