4. Making Fiscal Policy

By tracing the development, adoption, and implementation of major reforms of fiscal policy in Australia, Canada, Germany, and Switzerland, this chapter analyzes how the institutional setup of intergovernmental councils influences public policy-making. The reforms chosen are: Australia’s Intergovernmental Agreement on Federal Financial Relations, Canada’s Social Union Framework Agreement, Germany’s Constitutional Debt Brake, and Switzerland’s Corporate Tax Reform III. Given the comparative design of the book, the same analytical framework will be applied to each reform. The analysis takes a closer look at how and by whom a policy was developed, adopted, and implemented to identify, for example, whether the fact that the federal government chairs meetings or provides secretariat services enables it to determine the council agenda.