Spheres Of Governance

Local governments are becoming increasingly important around the world and functions are being shifted across levels of government. This timely comparative analysis breaks new ground in the study of multilevel governance, intergovernmental relations, and municipal government. Spheres of Governance systematically compares the challenges faced by municipalities in Australia, France, Germany, Mexico, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States, with emphasis on the relationship between the municipal and federal levels. Each chapter analyzes a municipality in relation to its responsibilities, functions, and organization; constitutional and fiscal position; relations with the central government; provincial and state governments mediation of these relationships; and public policy development, especially with regard to emergency planning and immigration and settlement. The chapters also highlight the tensions and pressures for change in the systems.

"Supervision of Local Government discusses the role of national and provincial governments in supervising the functions of local government. The book analyses the legal status of local government, which is entrenched and protected by the Constitution, and examines the powers of the national and provincial governments to supervise local government. Supervision of Local Government explores international practices in the supervision of local government and investigates general trends in the supervision of selected municipalities in South Africa. Shortcomings, inconsistencies and irregularities in the supervision of local government are identified. The book discusses the concept of 'supervision' as it relates to local government in its broad sense, which includes monitoring, intervening in and supporting local government. Supervision of Local Government also explores the manifestation of the principles of cooperative government and subsidiarity in the supervision of local government by national and provincial governments. Cooperative government requires that the other spheres of government intervene in local government to assist municipalities in managing their own affairs, while the principle of subsidiarity requires that services should be rendered at the lowest possible level of government. Thus, the national and provincial spheres have a duty to support the local sphere of government in fulfilling this duty and this duty"--Back cover.

Comparative studies examine the constitutional design and actual operation of governments in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, India, Nigeria, Russia, South Africa, Switzerland, and the United States. Contributors analyze the structures and workings of legislative, executive, and judicial institutions in each sphere of government. They also explore how the federal nature of the polity affects those institutions and how the institutions in turn affect federalism. The book concludes with reflections on possible future trends.

The main objective of this book is to restate the important theories and evidence from economic analysis concerning intergovernmental fiscal issues. More importantly, the second objective of the book is to identify gaps in knowledge, empirical uncertainties, and missing theoretical structures and then to establish a preliminary agenda for new research on this topic. The book is organized in two sections. The first covers the core body of intergovernmental fiscal relations, including optimal size for jurisdictions and assignment of public sector functions, the formulation and execution of tax policy in an intergovernmental setting, and the appropriate structure and use of intergovernmental transfers. In the second section, the core knowledge is applied to four major policy areas: education, welfare, fiscal interaction in urban areas, and economic development. In thinking about a new research agenda, the authors call for more current and authoritative estimates of fiscal incidence, including interjurisdictional spillovers, for more fundamental research about the federation process and effects of consolidation, for new evidence about the long run, general equilibrium effects of interjurisdictional competition, and for basic research about the choice process and establishment of intergovernmental fiscal institutions and policies by federal and subnational governments.