This Discussion Paper deals with the institutional and economic aspects of the Brazilian federative state according to the 1988 Constitution. The context of vertical coordination of urban infrastructure investments is then examined. Previous studies have shown that the benefits of economic...

A very bad deal was concluded not long ago at Love Field airport in Dallas, Texas, a deal that effectively continues for nearly a decade what has by wide consensus been one of the more pernicious, anticompetitive slices of pork-barrel protectionist federal interventions in all of American...

This paper analyzes the lack of civic engagement in local government decision-making and the problems that result from it. I consider one explanation as viewed through public choice theory: dominant special interest groups capture local governments for their own private interests. Thus, average...

In the past year, local governments have made a foray into the hotly debated arena of immigration law and policy by adopting laws to address illegal immigration in their respective jurisdictions. Courts have struck down many of these laws on the grounds that they are preempted pursuant to a...

This section analyzes the main new trends that became visible in the North Caucasus during the past year. Bearing in mind the specific features of this region of the Russian Federation, it is important that our analyst should not be confined to examining only the changes that occurred in the...

We can enhance development by making it easier for people to “vote with their feet” between jurisdictions. Few, if any, policy reforms can achieve such enormous increases in economic growth and opportunity. Foot voting is, in several crucial respects, a better mechanism of political...

One of the biggest problems with modern democracy is that most of the public is usually ignorant about politics and government. Many people understand that their votes are unlikely to change the outcome of an election and don't see the point in learning much about politics. This creates a nation...

The relative scope of federal and state power under the U.S. Constitution has been a major bone of contention for over 200 years. Courts have sometimes enforced substantial limits on federal authority by striking down federal laws deemed to be outside the scope of Congress’ enumerated powers...

There is broad, though not universal, agreement that widespread voter ignorance and irrational evaluation of evidence are serious threats to democracy. But there is deep disagreement over strategies for mitigating the danger. 'Top-down' approaches, such as epistocracy and lodging more authority...

Ever since the Supreme Court's landmark decision in United States v. Lopez invalidating the Gun-Free School Zones Act as beyond the scope of Congress's Commerce Clause power, scholarly commentators from both sides of the ideological spectrum have wondered whether the Court would apply the...