The Political Economy of Local Government: Leadership, Reform and Market Failure

This book seeks to go beyond conventional fiscal federalism texts in two main ways. First, it draws on recent development in the theories of institutional economics. Secondly, it claims that hitherto the ‘application of fiscal federalism has focused almost exclusively on how to assign responsibility for public goods between different tiers of government….in this book we seek to remedy this shortcoming’ (p. 3). The book certainly meets its first aim, for it assembles a wide and valuable range of sources and insights, but there are perhaps two reservations. One reservation is that the book makes no reference to some of the major ‘traditional’ texts, so that the picture presented of the traditional approach is at times limited. In particular, there is little desire to consider states as well as local authorities, and little appreciation of the wide debate about how large local authorities should be. The other reservation is that the reader is presented with many disparate thoughts, and might appreciate more help in reconciling them.