This article questions the budgetary decision of the French local authorities, as a democratic process, faced with the 2008 economic globalization crisis, which turned into a public finances “crisis.” With the involvement of the states, a European “government” of austerity has been established through various reforms. The methodology crosses the (neo)institutional analysis of reforms, the statistical analysis of local budgets, and a survey based on interviews. A typology of concrete budgetary choices shows that the elitist and technocratic models are predominant with regard to the democratic model. Despite the variety of the actors’ budgetary plays, the change in local public action is difficult, particularly because of the traditional spending culture within the French local system. These results question the political legitimacy of decentralization, managerial performance, and the representative democracy of proximity.