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...

In the past thirty years, local governments in most European countries have been granted at least limited access to borrowing. The rules in force include limitations on the amount of borrowing and/or debt service, restrictions on the purpose of debt and on borrowing from foreign institutions...