Wiseman on Federalism: A Critical Comment

In: Environment and planning. C, Government and policy, Band 5, Heft 4, S. 411-415

Abstract

In this paper I give a critical commentary on the paper by Wiseman, "The political economy of federalism: a critical appraisal". Wiseman's paper has originality which has stood it well over time. I comment briefly on the equity-efficiency debate but concentrate on the aspects of political economy introduced by Wiseman. The opportunity is also used to give a brief view of subsequent developments in the literature, which have shown how far, in so many respects, Wiseman's emphasis on the "politics" of federalism has turned out to be correct.