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The failure to learn from others: Vertical fiscal imbalance, centralisation, and Australia's metropolitan knowledge deficit
Author(s) -
Tomlinson Richard
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
australian journal of public administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.524
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-8500
pISSN - 0313-6647
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8500.12387
Subject(s) - metropolitan area , centralisation , corporate governance , government (linguistics) , conditionality , public administration , political science , regional science , business , economics , finance , sociology , politics , geography , market economy , linguistics , philosophy , archaeology , law
This paper questions the routes to knowledge of metropolitan governance elsewhere in the world and then explains how and why these are rendered more difficult in Australia. The paper begins with the policy literature on the exchange of knowledge relevant to metropolitan governance. The paper next explains the constitutional and fiscal backdrop to metropolitan governance in Australia; the ‘unique’ role of state governments in the funding, planning, and management of cities, and the powers adopted by the federal government that are made possible by vertical fiscal imbalance and funding conditionality. The paper then explores horizontal knowledge exchange of metropolitan governance in the form of transnational municipal networks, corporations, international organisations, and consultants. The final section of the paper considers the thesis that were Australia's cities to function independently, as metropolitan governments, the potential for knowledge exchange would be optimised. Knowledge of smart city technologies is used for case study purposes.