Introduction: the evolution of intergovernmental financial relations in the twenty-first century

The first decade and a half of the twenty-first century can be characterized as a period of economic and political instability and change. The financial crisis and its aftermath that has disrupted global markets since 2008 is perhaps the most significant international political and economic development over this period. The acute impact of the 'Great Recession' has generated a good deal of scholarship on both the short-term international policy response to the crisis as well as the subsequent sovereign debt and budgetary challenges that emerged as governments embarked on the long and fiercely contested process of fiscal consolidation and budget repair. With the passage of time, more attention is being paid to the subtle, yet significant processes through which crisis-related pressures are being mediated by pre-existing domestic political interests, issues and institutional structures. Such historically grounded accounts enhance our understanding of the complex processes that are reshaping twenty-first-century politics (Grant and Wilson 2012; Moschella and Tsingou 2013; Helleiner 2014; Bell and Hindmoor 2015).