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Decentralization, Competition and the Efficiency of Federalism *
Author(s) -
HAMLIN ALAN P.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
economic record
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.365
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1475-4932
pISSN - 0013-0249
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-4932.1991.tb02546.x
Subject(s) - federalism , decentralization , argument (complex analysis) , competition (biology) , economics , fiscal federalism , politics , economic system , political science , law and economics , market economy , law , ecology , biochemistry , chemistry , biology
Arguments for the efficiency of federalism typically depend on a decentralization thesis and a competition thesis, both of which relate to mobility. In this essay I shall review and appraise these two lines of argument I shall suggest that the decentralization thesis is best seen, not as an argument for the efficiency of federalism, but as an efficiency criterion against which models of federalism may be evaluated By contrast, competition and mobility are aspects of the procedural mechanism of federalism which must be supplemented by explicit models of the political process.