Design, Trajectories of Reform, and Implementation of Performance Budgeting in Local Governments: A Comparative Study of Germany, Italy, Lithuania, and Norway

This chapter deals with the design and implementation of performance budgeting (PB) at the local level of government. The analysis focuses on municipal budgeting systems in four European countries in order to appraise whether, to what extent and why they have moved (or are moving) towards PB. The selected countries represent four sets of geographical regions in Europe: (1) Nordic countries (Norway); (2) countries of Continental Europe (Germany); (3) countries of Southern Europe (Italy); and (4) countries of Eastern Europe (Lithuania). The objectives of this chapter are: (i) to provide a description of the evolution of budgeting systems towards PB models at the local level of government by highlighting different concepts and trajectories of reform in the countries inves-tigated; (ii) to identify the main causes influencing processes of reform in the different countries, focusing specifically on whether and to what extent NPM-based principles, external pressures, or the 2007 financial crisis impacted the pace and contents of budgeting reforms.