In federal countries, such as the U.S., the fiscal authority consists not of one, but many governments, with state governments accounting for a sizable share of expenditures. We analyze how state partisanship of politicians affects state fiscal policy and quantify the possible macroeconomic...

Historically Switzerland is characterized by numerous small towns. During the twentieth century, the image of Swiss cities has changed: the expansion of the city has reached the limits of administrative urban borders, penetrating in peripheral locations. The main reasons concern not only the...

While small and medium-sized towns are profoundly rooted in the national territorial narrative (Delpirou, 2013), their role and position in France are not clearly identified, either in terms of territorial planning policy or in the field of academic research. And yet these "intermediate" spaces...

This study aims at analyzing the impacts of administrative problems resulting from the two level form of urban government whose framework is outlined in the Law for Metropolitan Municipalities, over the notion of integrated planning. It is suggested that it would be impossible to mention a...

The work is the product of a critical reflection on the results of some of the most recent processes that affect the city and contribute to built the enigmatic and complex landscape of the twenty-first century city. The paper focuses, in particular, on the role that culture, architecture,...

The paper uses the consolidation of municipalities brought about by the Fascist dictatorship in Italy during the 1920s to gauge the role of the size of local jurisdictions for economic development. It finds that the consolidation was associated with relevant net welfare gains for the communities...

Thirty years after Soviet-style socialism, the post-socialist cities have witnessed a wideranging transformation in urban processes toward various forms of the trend "government to governance". This paper aims to explore the differences in Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) institutional change...

The main goal of this article is to demonstrate whether the awareness of key actors and the application of the sustainable development concept can find appropriate solutions for the preservation of the environment in the contemporary conditions of economic development. Humanity today is facing...

Many welfare reforms undertaken in OECD-countries are directed towards enhancing efficiency in the administration and implementation of social security and social benefits. In this perspective the governance reforms in The Netherlands are an example of decentralisation through budgeting of means...