A Comparison of Greek and Latvian Budget Consolidation Politics

Sammanfattning: This comparative case study tries to answer the question why the budget consolidation process began earlier in Latvia then in Greece after the 2008 financial crisis. The established theories predict one-party majority governments to be more decisive than coalition governments, but in this essay the opposite is the case. Theories regarding the impact of protests on budget consolidations are also tested but this causal link is deemed to be too weak to draw any conclusions from. The method used is process tracing of hypothesized explanatory variables derived from the existent theory formation in a method of difference type case situation. The explanation suggests that Latvia benefited from having several veto players in the government as no single government party could be held responsible of the stern budget consolidation politics. In contrast, the Greek politicians hesitated because of the intense framing by the opposition of the government as being economically irresponsible.