Als einziges Land in Europa betreibt die Schweiz seit 1996 eine Krankenversicherungspolitik, die mehrheitlich aus lohnunabhängigen Kopfpauschalen finanziert wird und den sozialen Ausgleich durch das staatliche Steuer-Transfer-System realisiert. Die gegenwärtige Debatte in Deutschland über die...

This paper examines the infrastructure–decentralization nexus in the production of health services with a particular emphasis on the issue of health infrastructure. The first part of the paper presents evidence on health services and infrastructure spending in health for various countries or...

This paper deals with the management of three environmental policies at the local level: clean water distribution, sewage and wastewater treatment and household solid waste collection and treatment. The argument is that applying the benefit principle for financing these services will enhance...

The debate about the amalgamation of local government units (thereafter LGUs for simplicity – in Switzerland: “communes” or “Gemeinden”) usually stems from the fact that LGUs’ political borders (the institutional territory) do no longer coincide with the economic boundaries required...

For the past two decades, experiments in decentralization and federalization have been developing in Africa, Asia, and the formerly communist states of Eastern Europe. Many of the powers previously in the hands of the central government or its de-concentrated structures have been transferred to...

This paper formalizes the new schemes of fiscal equalization that has been decided in 2009 and will be introduced at the local level in the canton of Fribourg (Switzerland) in 2011. It develops the political economy of the proposal with the aim of understanding the participative democratic...

This paper deals with the management of three environmental policies at the local level: clean water distribution, sewage and wastewater treatment and household solid waste collection and treatment. The argument is that applying the benefit principle for financing these services will enhance...

The objective of democratic decentralization is to enable institutions at the grassroots level to take decisions in matters related to the day to day life of the people. Transparency and accountability do not happen on their own: they have to be promoted and delivered by performing institutions....

The debate about the amalgamation of local government units stems from the fact that their political borders (the institutional territory) do no longer coincide with the functional territory required for an efficient provision of most local public services. And both do not correspond with the...