The starting point of this article focusing on fiscal discipline is that the source of the phenomenon lies in the common pool problem, the fact that recipients of public spending to fail to fully internalize the costs that taxpayers must assume. As a result, democratically elected governments are led to postpone tax collection, or to cut spending. Therefore, solving the fiscal discipline problem requires internalizing this externality. This calls for adequate institutions or rules, or a combination of both. This academic piece of work reviews the various types of solutions that have been discussed in the literature and surveys a number of experiments with the European debt crisis in mind. Signature: Historia 160