The rural consolidation state: A critical examination of municipal consolidation strategies in Bavaria, Germany

This paper examines the effects of austerity policies on financially weak rural municipalities in Germany, focusing on debt support programmes that make financial aid conditional on municipal efforts to increase revenues and cut expenditures. These programmes effectively enforce austerity at the municipal level. Drawing on Streeck's concept of the consolidation state and austerity urbanism literature, we develop the concept of the rural consolidation state to analyse the specific challenges rural municipalities face under austerity. To this end, we identify five characteristics that shape the possibilities and limitations of fiscal consolidation for rural municipalities. Based on a case study of Bavaria's debt support programme, Stabilisierungshilfen (stabilisation aid), we find that austerity operates differently in rural settings than in cities, often leading to distinct forms of discontent and embitterment in the countryside.