When are decentralized public institutions most likely to succeed in promoting effective public good provision or the emergence of local cooperation? Two influential literatures in political science, those on "empowered participatory governance" and on "market-preserving federalism," both...

This paper argues that the principal avenue of policy innovation in the areas of economic and social policy in the advanced industrial countries is a function of the sub-national capacity of interest organizations. In policy areas where these organizations exercise high deliberative capacity,...