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The purpose of this article is to report on the political work carried out by the State to encourage local and regional authorities to participate in the adjustment of public accounts. From the 1980s to 2000, local authorities introduced budgetary rationalisation policies to reduce their operating costs, but on the condition that the State did not limit their financial autonomy. From the late 2000s onwards, the State developed more interventionist policies, first of all by freezing allocations to local authorities and then lowering them. This action by the State, which is part of the strengthening of budgetary discipline defined by the European Union, has consequences on the dynamic of employment in local authorities, on the control of operating expenses but also on the legitimization and dissemination of managerial discourses in favour of forms of public employment management through performance.