proach to public spending in Argentina, to Donald Trump’s tariff-centered fiscal nationalism in the United States, to Emmanuel Macron’s renewed push for common European borrowing, public fi nance has re-emerged as a defining arena of po litical conflict and institutional innovation. The cli mate crisis, wars and forced migration, rising ine quality, and demographic change are just a few examples of policy areas that demand an adapta tion of public expenditure and potentially increase competition and conflict between groups affected by the reallocation of resources.
This special issue encompasses the policy trade offs between public revenue and expenditure as well as public debt and fiscal consolidation. It aims to integrate different levels of governance and a variety of regime types. Papers perform statistical analyses of aggregate data in single countries or in comparative perspective. Studies based on in dividual-level data are just as welcome.
Scope and Topics
We invite contributions from political science, eco nomics, public finance, sociology, statistics, law, and related disciplines addressing one or more of the following areas:
1. Public Revenue: Taxation, Contributions, and Fiscal Capacity
• How do tax structures evolve under conditions of fiscal stress?
• What political, institutional, and distributive con flicts shape revenue reforms?
• What role do international tax competition and supranational regulations play?
2. Public Expenditure: Allocation, Investment, and Redistribution
• How do governments prioritize expenditures un der fiscal constraints?
• What political coalitions shape welfare state re trenchment or expansion?
• How do public attitudes toward spending evolve in times of crisis?
3. Public Debt and Fiscal Sustainability
• What drives public debt dynamics across levels of governance?
• How do fiscal rules, debt brakes, and suprana tional constraints shape borrowing behavior?
• How sustainable are social insurance systems under demographic pressure?
4. Fiscal Consolidation and Political Conflict
• Under what conditions do governments pursue austerity or expansionary policies?
• What are the electoral and distributive conse quences of consolidation strategies?
• How do consolidation policies interact with social security reforms?
5. Innovations in the Analysis of Public Finance
• Big data and machine learning in fiscal forecasts
• Computational text analysis of budget debates
• Microsimulation of tax-benefit reforms
• Real-time fiscal monitoring and early warning
Submission Guidelines
We invite both theoretical and empirical papers, as well as case studies and comparative analyses. Submissions should be original and not under re view elsewhere. Papers should follow the format ting guidelines of Statistics, Politics and Policy (SPP) and be submitted through the journal’s platform http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/dgspp
For further inquiries, please contact Prof. Bern hard Kittel or Prof. Uwe Wagschal (spppolitik.uni-freiburgde).
Manuscripts should be submitted until October 31st, 2026.
