This timely and important volume addresses the serious challenges faced by democracy in contemporary society. With contributions from some of the world's most prestigious scholars of public choice and political science, this comprehensive collection presents a complete overview of the threats...

Contrasting architectonics for a theory of public finance -- Property, state and public finance -- State and market : a two-forum societal architecture -- Political entrepreneurship within the ecology of enterprises -- The economic organization of political enterprises -- Revenue extraction :...

1. Public sector shock in Europe : between structural reforms and quantitative adjustment / Daniel Vaughan-Whitehead -- 2. Public sector adjustment and the threat to gender equality / Jill Rubery -- 3. Early application of fiscal austerity measures in the Baltic states / Jaan Masso and Kerly...

This authoritative collection presents seminal papers from leading academics charting recent developments in public finance. The two-volume set encompasses numerous sections including the public sector in a market economy, market imperfections, growth implications of public policies and...

Despite being an integral part of modern economic science, the subject of financial economics has deep historical roots. Geoffrey Poitras provides an exhaustive account of the early development of the subject and, in so doing, provides a sound basis for the study of modern financial economics....

This book explores the system of financing local governments in selected countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Using evidence from the last two decades, the authors, experts on their particular countries, describe the development of the current local government finance system in each nation,...

Struggles over what a region receives, or should receive, from the budget of the central government are common to many countries. Discussions often focus on the measures of 'net fiscal flows' or 'fiscal balances' provided by the government or other actors. This unique book shows just how these...

This book analyzes political decentralization and fiscal federalism in Canada and Germany, both traditional federal countries, and in Spain, a unitarian country engaged in the last two decades in a process of decentralization. Three key issues required for a well designed financing system are...

State and Local Finances under Pressure explores the future of state and local government fiscal systems given the numerous pressures they face from economic, legal, technological, demographic and political forces. It explores how these multiple forces play out in terms of the changes state and...

In this broad and illuminating work, experts on public finance discuss innovations in state and local tax policy that have been implemented or considered over the course of the last three decades. The authors provide original work that analyzes whether state and local governments have 'gone...