This book analyzes the architecture of fiscal decentralization in one hundred and ten countries as well as in major metropolitan areas. In the majority of these countries, local authorities are taking on more and more responsibilities for public investment and the provision of services that are...

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...

The United States provides a classic example of a bottom-up system of federalism. It was created in 1787 when representatives of the then 13 colonies convened to ratify a constitution under which both the central government and the states would be sovereign entities. Within certain...