Fiscal Federalism in 1986: The spotlight Continues To Swing Toward the States and Local Governments

The year in Washington saw the president and the Congress atloggerheads on the budget but in agreement on important taxlegislation. A prominent casualty of the battle to slash thefederal deficit was Revenue Sharing. "Sequestration" and therhetoric of austerity that doomed Revenue Sharing notwithstanding,total federal grants (adjusted for inflation and populationgrowth) rose in 1986 for the second year in a row, continuinga recovery from the six-year decline that had begun in 1979.The net effects of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 will vary substantiallyamong the states, but the federal legislation guarantees thattax reform will be a central issue in many state legislaturesin 1987. Federal mandates continued to be promulgated in 1986with little regard for the costs to states and localities. Anotable exception was the outcome of the struggle over fundingfor grants for the treatment facilities needed to comply withthe standards prescribed by the Clean Water Act of 1972: muchmore generous funding than was sought by the president.     

Reviews

R. W. Davies, The Industrialisation of Soviet Russia 1. The Soviet Offensive: The Collectivisation of Soviet Agriculture, 1929–1930. London: The Macmillan Press Ltd., 1980, xxi+491 pp., twenty tables. £20.00.

The Industrialisation of Soviet Russia 2. The Soviet Collective Farm, 1929–1930. London: The Macmillan Press Ltd., 1980. x + 216 pp., nine tables. £20.00.

Zdeně'k Mlynár, Night Frost in Prague. The End of Humane Socialism. London: C. Hurst & Co., 1980. 300 pp. £9.50.

Alistair McAuley, Economic Welfare in the Soviet Union: Poverty, Living Standards and Inequality. Hemel Hempstead: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1979 and Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1979. xix + 389pp. £15.00.

Nicolas Spulber, Organizational Alternatives in Soviet‐type Economies. London: C.U.P., 1979, x + 290 pp, index. £15.00.

J. H. Moore, Growth with Self‐Management: Yugoslav Industrialization 1952–1975. Stanford, California: Hoover Institution Press, 1980. xvi + 334 pp. $17.95.

Richard K. Ashley, The Political Economy of War and Peace. The Sino‐Soviet‐American Triangle and the Modern Security Problematique. London: Frances Pinter (Publishers) Ltd., New York: Nichols Publishing Company, 1980. xv + 384 pp. £15.

Boris Komarov (pseud.), The Destruction of Nature in the Soviet Union. Foreword by Marshall I. Goldman. White Plains, New York: M. E. Sharpe,* 1980. x+150pp. $15.00.

George Katkov, The Kornilov Affair: Kerensky and the Break‐up of the Russian Army. London and New York: Longman, 1980. xiv + 210 pp. £4.95 paper.