State Responses to the Fiscal Crisis in Britain, Germany and the Netherlands

Abstract How have governments, politics and administrations responded to the fiscal crisis? In this brief article, a first preliminary analysis is made how Great Britain, Germany and The Netherlands managed the crisis. The crisis consisted of three stages: First, the financial crisis causing governments to save and support banks; second, the economic crisis, causing governments to take economic recovery measures and third, the fiscal crisis of state debts and budget deficits, causing governments to take fiscal cut-back measures. Particular attention is paid to the governmental decision-making processes during the three stages of the crisis.