City Finances and the National Economy

City governments were better prepared to face the 1990–1992recession than were state governments, and they adjusted theirbudgets with relatively less fanfare. The absence of widespreadbankruptcy notwithstanding, the fiscal position of cities hasdeterioratedandsome ofthe necessary adjustments were painful.Services were reduced as real per capita expenditure growthdeclined, taxes were increased, and the entire local governmentsector remained in deficit during the past six years. The problemhas not been softened by federal or state policies; in fact,the flow of both federal and state aid slowed markedly duringthe late 1980s. A combination of economic and social forcessuggests that many of the nation's older cities will not outgrowthis fiscal stress and their budgetary well-being will be moredependent on state and federal policies.     

Federalism and Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka

A transfer of central governmental authority to regional governmentsis being tried in Sri Lanka in an attempt to resolve ethnicconflict. In November 1987, Sri Lanka established a system ofprovincial councils. This system will allow regional autonomyin the country's nine provinces. It is hoped that this councilsystem will resolve complaints by the nation's largest ethnicminority, the Sri Lanka Tamils. The system falls short of beinga true federal arrangement, however, because it leaves extensivepower in the hands of the president and the national legislature.In addition, the plan is opposed by important groups in thesociety. The more militant Sri Lanka Tamil leaders have opposedthe plan because it transfers too little power to the councils.Also, long-standing fears among the nation's largest ethnicgroup, the Sinhalese, have generated a violent response frommilitant members of this ethnic group. The government and moderateSri Lanka Tamil leaders are now seeking to implement the provincialcouncil system.     

Federal Infrastructure Grants-In-Aid: An Ad Hoc Infrastructure Strategy

This article analyzes the trends and implications of recent federal aid to state and local government for infrastructure purposes. The first section describes general trends for federal infrastructure and the second section examines identified characteristics in the context of fiscal federalism theory. The authors identify an ad hoc trend in the federal infrastructure grant policy and a trend focusing on maximizing the efficiency of infrastructure grants     

Targeting Federal Grants: The Community Development Experience, 1950-1986

This article examines the degree to which federal communityand economic development programs target federal assistanceto the nation's neediest communities. Grant allocations to citieswith populations of 50,000 or more were examined for six majorfederal urban programs during 1950–1986. Federal programsthat include both needs-based eligibility and allocational featureswere found to achieve the highest levels of targeting. The analysisfurther shows that while urban conditions in the nation's mostdistressed cities continued to deteriorate during the 1980sin both relative and absolute terms, grant allocations underthe major federal urban program, Community Development BlockGrants, have not responded to the changing incidence of urbanhardship.     

Federal and Local Interests in the Nation's Capital: Congress and District of Columbia Appropriations

Canadian political scientist Donald C. Rowat posits the thesis that there is a "conflict of interest" in all federal capital cities between the national government and the local residents. Federal and local interests in the nation's capital have been so intertwined that it is difficult to define or separate them. Congress has used the appropriations process to intervene in local policy matters even when the federal interest is not involved.     

Expanding housing choices for the sector popular: Strategies for Mexico

Abstract

By the year 2000, some 40 million people in Mexico will live in settlements commonly called the informal sector. Most will live in houses that they have constructed themselves and that have some infrastructure deficit. To meet their needs, the authors propose a set of demand and supply strategies. Emphasis is placed on the increased use of small group savings programs, the provision of progressive infrastructure, and the creation of housing‐related employment. The supply of low‐cost land must be increased, which will necessitate reforms in the ejido land tenure system. Examples of locally derived, non‐government‐supported betterment programs are presented.

The article concludes by calling on the federal government to create stronger links with the informal sector and to reestablish its role as the supporter of social housing in Mexico.     

Equality of Status, Inequality of Result: State Power and High-Level Radioactive Waste

American intergovernmental relationships are continually redefinedthrough political processes by which the state and federal governmentsseek to achieve their respective policy goals. Following a summaryof the development of federal policy for the disposal of high-levelradioactive waste (HLW), federal court cases that have resultedfrom the selection of Nevada as the nation's host for a HLWrepository are discussed. The cases raise, in a unique way,questions regarding the equality of states' power in the contextof constitutional principles such as the equal footing doctrine,the privileges and immunity clause, and the Tenth Amendment.Questions are also raised regarding the ability of states tosafeguard their interests in the political arena as describedin Garcia.     

ISTEA: A New Direction for Transportation Policy

The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA)of 1991 is likely to be remembered as one of President Bush'smost significant contributions to government decentralizationand the ideals of New Federalism. It is a landmark piece oflegislation that makes wholesale revisions in the federal government'srole in transportation policy, providing state and, especially,local policymakers with an unprecedented opportunity to determinethe future direction of the nation's surface transportationprograms. However, at the same time it decentralized authorityover project selection, it continued to expandthe number ofcrossover sanctions attached to federal transportation fundingand preempted state authority over truck weights and lengths.This underscores recent research findings that suggest thatfederalism principles are important to federal policymakersbut not necessarily more important than other competing valuesthat emanate from different political, social, and economicviews.     

Interstate and Intergovernmental Factors Affecting the Conditions of Rural Bridges

Many of the nation's rural highway bridges are structurallydeficient, functionally inadequate, or both. Rural bridges areparticularly likely to be in poor condition in states wherethe federal government plays a small role in the highway program,where local governments play a large role in highway financing,and where the chief state transportation agency is a highwaydepartment rather than a department of transportation. The assignmentof responsibilities, then, appears to influence program performance.     

STATE URBAN POLICY: "New" Federalism In Virginia, New Jersey and Florida

The recent rediscovery of federalism has left the nation's governors with expanded responsibility and limited federal support. In return, they were promised greater fiscal flexibility, a real partnership in program design, and protection from unfunded mandates. However, states seem unwilling to offer the same guarantees to their cities that they sought from the federal government, even as they expand city responsibilities and limit state aid. This paper explores the extent to which Virginia, New Jersey and Florida have provided the fiscal flexibility and partnership, except in the area of economic development, but the diminished fiscal capacity of some distressed communities relative to their suburban counterparts render them unable to benefit from such efforts.     

The Troubled Renewal of the Canada-Ontario Agreement Respecting Great Lakes Water Quality

Powerful constituent governments can have a significant impacton a federal nation's ability to implement international agreements.Negotiating written agreements is one strategy for achievingpolicy coordination in nations with such governments. This articleexamines the Canada-Ontario Agreement (COA) Respecting GreatLakes Water Quality, which helps Canada to meet its obligationsunder its Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement with the UnitedStates. First negotiated in 1971, COA was regularly renegotiatedwithout incident until the most recent round of negotiations,which began in 1991 and continued into 1994. The negotiatingissues that proved so contentious during this round are examined,as is the impact on the negotiations of developments on thebroader Canadian political scene.     

Imperfect Federalism: The Intergovernmental Partnership for Homeland Security

The terror attacks of September 11, 2001, posed a set of security challenges for the nation's cities that the increasingly decentralized federal system was poorly prepared to meet. Although it was generally agreed that domestic security required a close intergovernmental partnership, strong national leadership and support were lacking in creating and guiding this partnership. To make matters more difficult, political considerations in Congress generally trumped the assessment of security risks in the distribution of federal fiscal aid. This article explores the strains in the intergovernmental homeland security partnership, their causes, and efforts to adapt and reform. Despite some progress toward a more rational public administration of homeland security, the partnership still reflects the deficiencies of imperfect federalism.     

Surface-Transportation Funding in a New Century: Assessing One Slice of the Federal Marble Cake

This article examines American federalism through the prismof the surface transportation program, one of the nation's largestgrant-in-aid programs. No matter how pragmatic or intense thedesire to express assessments in simple terms, federalism isa time-sensitive reflection of our collective experiential understanding.Facts, values, hypotheses, and concepts are derived from thiscollective understanding. The experience of the surface transportationprogram under ISTEA and TEA–21 illustrates the challengeof achieving a clear picture of federalism when radical changesoccur. ISTEA and TEA–21 have significantly altered traditionalintergovernmental relationships, particularly as the federalrole in transportation appears to have become more ambiguousthan at any time in the past 45 years. Thus, at the outset ofthe twenty-first century, the federal role in transportationis shifting, becoming far less focused. Other goals are emerging,leading the federal transportation role to become more of ameans to an end than the central focal point.     

The Politics of Coercive Federalism in the Bush Era

During the period of the Bush Presidency, the federal governmentproceeded to centralize and nationalize policy in major areasformerly controlled by states and localities. The extensionof federal goals and standards to such areas as education testing,sales tax collection, emergency management, infrastructure,and elections administration were among the areas of significantmandates and preemptions. The continuation of policy centralizationin areas under a conservative and unified political regime showshow strong and deep the roots are for centralizing policy actionsin our intergovernmental system.     

The Size Efficiency of Rural Governments: The Case of Low-Volume Rural Roads

The deterioration of the supply of public infrastructure throughoutthe United States has been found to be accelerating. The reasonmost often cited for the increasing rates of deterioration isthe lack of available funding, or fiscal stress, present inmany local governments. A popular short-term solution to fiscalstress is to defer infrastructure repairs and/or replacementprograms. This is particularly true in rural areas where a decliningagricultural base and redirected federal policy have placedsignificant downward pressure on revenues. The search for along-term solution has renewed the debate about the optimalsize of local governments. The research reported here examinesthe issue of size efficiency in the production of low-volumerural roads in the Midwest. At issue is the ability of Midwesttownships to realize size economies. Overall, size inefficiencieswere identified which suggests that cost savings may be realizedfrom the reorganization of the production of low-volume roadservices.     

Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations in 1996: The End of an Era

On 30 September 1996 the U.S. Advisory Commission on IntergovernmentalRelations (ACIR) closed its doors, ending thirty-seven yearsof advocacy for federalism and intergovernmental relations.A majority of members in the Congress felt that A CIR had becomeirrelevant to the issues facing them and agreed that littlewould be lost by terminating the commission. The Clinton administration,although supportive until near the end, withdrew its'supportout of displeasure with the commission's handling of the unfundedfederal mandates issue. The national associations representingstate and local governments were ambivalent. ACIR was no longerlooked to for solutions to the nation's intergovernmental relationsproblems. With the exit of ACIR, the federal government's lastresource for addressing broad intergovernmental issues—beyondthe confines of individual programs—is gone.     

Why National Competition Policy?

Strategies to enhance Australia's international competitiveness need to embrace reform of key infrastructure service industries, reform of the regulatory environment, industrial relations reform and taxation reform. Key aspects of this reform agenda can only be addressed through a shared commitment by all levels of government. Ownership of the public utilities responsible for the nation's key infrastructure networks and services is divided among commonwealth, state and territory (and local) governments. Achieving a substantial lift in the productivity of these industries and ensuring the emergence of truly national infrastructure networks relies on agreement by all governments to public utility reform and the removal of barriers to cross-border competition. Moreover, the regulation of industries, occupations and businesses is primarily the responsibility of state and territory governments, hence regulatory reform also requires a cooperative approach by all governments.
While most jurisdictions have taken some steps to reform public utilities and to deregulate certain product markets, to date reform has been piecemeal. A more systematic approach to removal of impediments to competition across the board is likely to be necessary to lift the overall competitiveness of the Australian economy. The agreement by the commonwealth and all states and territories to implement the National Competition Policy (NCP) not only provides the necessary shared commitment to reform across the board, it also provides the rewards and sanctions needed to sustain that commitment in the face of certain resistance from vested interests.     

Learning from the States? Federalism and National Health Policy

In its 1993 report, the Winter Commission gave direction to the federal government in the area of health policy and Medicaid: lead, follow, or get out of the way. This article examines how the federal government responded to that advice, specifically asking what has happened in the allocation of responsibility in health policies between 1993 and 2006. In short, unlike the suggestion that there be a better‐defined direction in federal–state policy assignments in health, the ensuing years have resulted in more of the same. The authors examine what has happened, particularly focusing on vertical diffusion—where the states have acted first—and on the role of policy learning in federal decision making. They find little recognition of policy learning in recent federal health laws—even in areas in which state experience was extensive. The federal government is leading in some health policies—but it is leading without learning.     

Disasters,Catastrophes, and Policy Failure in the Homeland Security Era1

The September 11 attacks triggered federal policy changes designed to influence emergency management in the United States, even though these attacks did not suggest a need for a wholesale restructuring of federal policy in emergency management. Instead, for several reasons, federal policy's emphasis on terrorism and emergency management significantly degraded the nation's ability to address natural disasters. The federal government sought to create a top‐down, command and control model of emergency management that never fully accounted for, positively or normatively, the way local emergency management works in practice. The Obama administration will have to address the questions raised by the reorganization of federal emergency management responsibilities. While the context in which these changes have occurred is unique to the U.S. federal system, there are interesting implications for emergency management in nonfederal systems.     

Institutionalising a National Approach to Performance Reporting: Lessons from Two Decades of Experience with the Report on Government Services

The Report on Government Services (RoGS) to the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) is considered an exemplar of benchmarking in a federal system. Published annually since 1997, RoGS provides performance reporting in the form of cross jurisdictional benchmarking on an unprecedented scale and scope. This paper argues ROGS has institutionalised a national approach to performance measurement and reporting that is now at the centre of the COAG reform agenda. The paper examines the processes and institutional structures that explain how RoGS has transformed performance reporting for social infrastructure services. The final section provides a preliminary assessment of the impact of RoGS.