In this thesis I investigate the application of various instruments of fiscal federalism in the Swiss Confederation, the United States of America and the European Union. Based on the knowledge of the theory and the works of authors dealing with this topic in stated regions I conclude that while the USA and Switzerland are quite similar in their competitive approach to fiscal federalism, the fiscal federalism mindset in the EU is entirely opposite to that of theirs. That is partly given by the fact that the EU is not a true federation with a strong central government but a union of sovereign states. But the fact that the responsibility in the USA and Switzerland lies upon the deciding policy makers and that they are at the same time constrained by certain fiscal rules whereas the standard in the EU is the socialization of losses and the fiscal rules are only being implemented now is in my opinion a more significant factor.

Orientador: Roberto Romano da Silva / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-24T13:19:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Moraes_GersonLeitede_D.pdf: 1685386 bytes, checksum: f992d1a1e026fac3fdf454268fc48b95 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / Resumo: A presente tese de doutoramento tem por escopo discutir aspectos filosóficos e políticos relacionados à figura de João Calvino e dos seus discípulos, que são chamados comumente de reformados ou calvinistas. Para tal foi necessário abarcar um longo período que se inicia na Baixa Idade Média, vista como incubadora de discussões filosóficas, econômicas, sociais, políticas e teológicas que acabaram desembocando no Renascimento Cultural, que trouxe à tona as Reformas Protestantes. Com o fim do monopólio católico em termos religiosos de um lado, e o estabelecimento da secularização em rápida expansão do outro, as Reformas Protestantes colocavam-se como uma inovação porque ofereciam a possibilidade de se vivenciar a fé cristã a partir de novas perspectivas, mas também podiam ser vistas como mantenedoras do forte fundamento religioso da sociedade europeia ocidental. Nesse jogo de inovação e manutenção da ordem, a Reforma Calvinista talvez tenha sido a que mais possibilidades de inovação ofereceu ao ambiente já destacado. João Calvino não foi somente um reformador, ou seja, um homem que construiu um modelo religioso na cidade de Genebra, e que serviu de referência para muitos outros lugares na Europa e fora dela, mas foi também um intelectual de grande envergadura, pois sua obra, crivada de aspectos teológicos, oferece subsídios para uma série de outras discussões nos campos filosófico, político, econômico, social. Pode-se dizer que Calvino foi um entre muitos pilares da modernidade. A presente tese discutiu e trouxe à tona as várias possibilidades de leitura e aplicabilidade dos conceitos desenvolvidos por João Calvino. Como consequência do seu trabalho, o velho mundo e a América tiveram oportunidades para colocar suas ideias em prática, seja numa transposição direta, ou com algumas adaptações. Nesse sentido, a tese dá uma ênfase especial para a atuação dos monarcômacos franceses, com sua teoria contratualista de organização do poder, numa época de desenvolvimento e consolidação do absolutismo como forma de governo. Além disso, procurou ressaltar a importância do calvinismo no combate à tirania, mostrando a necessidade de valorização das formas representativas de poder. Destaca, ainda, alguns casos em que os canais de comunicação entre o magistrado e o povo já não existiam, e que a possibilidade radical do tiranicídio tornou-se uma opção. Outra questão que ficou evidente na tese ora apresentada é que o calvinismo não foi e não é um bloco monolítico, pois debaixo de tal rótulo existem diferenças gritantes entre os grupos que se autodenominam representantes dessa tradição, e que vêm desde o século XVI tentando, através do discurso da permanência dos valores outrora defendidos, apropriarem-se exclusivamente dessa cosmovisão. Ademais, um outro elemento chamou a atenção na pesquisa, a saber, a injustiça cometida contra Calvino no campo epistemológico, pois nosso autor ficou reduzido à doutrina da predestinação, o que se configura num grande prejuízo na compreensão dele e de suas contribuições para o mundo moderno. Tentamos mostrar que Calvino e o calvinismo transcendem esses aspectos, e que suas contribuições foram de suma importância para o debate filosófico e políticResumo: / Abstract: This doctoral thesis has the purpose to discuss philosophical and political issues related to the figure of John Calvin and his disciples, which are commonly called the Reformed or the Calvinists. For this, it was necessary to cover a long period beginning in the late Middle Ages, which is seen as an incubator for philosophical, economic, social, political and theological discussions eventually emptying into the Cultural Renaissance, that brought about the Protestant Reform. With the end of the Catholic monopoly in religious terms on one side, and the establishment of secularization in rapid expansion on the other, Protestant Reforms put up as an innovation because they offered the possibility of living the Christian faith from new perspectives, but also could be seen as sustaining the strong religious foundation of Western European society. In this game of innovating and maintaining order, the Calvinist Reformation perhaps was the movement that more innovation possibilities offered to the environment already highlighted. John Calvin was not only a reformer, or a man who built a religious model in Geneva, and served as a reference for many other places in Europe and beyond it, but he was also a great intellectual figure because his work riddled with theological aspects provided grants to a number of other fields in philosophical, political, economic, and social discussions. It can be said that Calvin was one of the many pillars of modernity. This thesis has discussed and brought to light the various possibilities of reading, and the applicability of the concepts developed by John Calvin. As a result of his work the old world and America had opportunities to put their ideas into practice, in direct transpositions or with some adaptations. In this sense, the thesis gives a special emphasis to the role of the enemies of the French monarchy, with their contractual theory of power organization in a time of development and consolidation of the absolutism as a form of government. Moreover, it emphasized the importance of Calvinism in the fight against tyranny, showing the need for enhancement of representative forms of power. Also shows that in some cases, where the channels of communication between the magistrate and the people no longer existed, the radical possibility of tyrannicide became a valid option. Another issue that became apparent in the thesis presented here is that Calvinism was not, and is not a monolithic block, because under that label, there are striking differences between the groups calling themselves representatives of the same tradition, and that since the sixteenth century, they have been trying, by a speech based upon the permanence of values once defended, to be the owners of this worldview. Furthermore, another element called attention in the research, namely the injustice committed against Calvin in the epistemological field, as the author was reduced to his doctrine of predestination, which configures a great loss to understand himself and his contributions to the modern world. We try to show that Calvin and Calvinism go far beyond that, and their contributions were critical in the philosophical and political debate. / Doutorado / Filosofia / Doutor em Filosofia

This dissertation examines local governments’ efforts to promote economic development in Latin America. The research uses a mixed method to explore how cities make decisions to innovate, develop, and finance economic development programs. First, this study provides a comparative analysis of decentralization policies in Argentina and Mexico as a means to gain a better understanding of the degree of autonomy exercised by local governments. Then, it analyzes three local governments each within the province of Santa Fe, Argentina and the State of Guanajuato, Mexico. The principal hypothesis of this dissertation is that if local governments collect more own-source tax revenue, they are more likely to promote economic development and thus, in turn, promote growth for their region. By examining six cities, three of which are in Santa Fe—Rosario, Santa Fe (capital) and Rafaela—and three in Guanajuato—Leon, Guanajuato (capital) and San Miguel de Allende, this dissertation provides a better understanding of public finances and tax collection efforts of local governments in Latin America. Specific attention is paid to each city’s budget authority to raise new revenue and efforts to promote economic development. The research also includes a large statistical dataset of Mexico’s 2,454 municipalities and a regression analysis that evaluates local tax efforts on economic growth, controlling for population, territorial size, and the professional development. In order to generalize these results, the research tests these discoveries by using statistical data gathered from a survey administered to Latin American municipal officials. The dissertation demonstrates that cities, which experience greater fiscal autonomy measured by the collection of more own-source revenue, are better able to stimulate effective economic development programs, and ultimately, create jobs within their communities. The results are bolstered by a large number of interviews, which were conducted with over 100 finance specialists, municipal presidents, and local authorities. The dissertation also includes an in-depth literature review on fiscal federalism, decentralization, debt financing and local development. It concludes with a discussion of the findings of the study and applications for the practice of public administration.

A presente dissertação tem como objetivo apresentar a capacidade de investimento e de poupança própria dos 10 municípios de menor PIB do Estado de Goiás, no período de 2004 a 2013. Na composição do montante de receita dos municípios têm-se, além da receita própria, as receitas oriundas das transferências intergovernamentais, por meio do FPM (Fundo de Participação dos Municípios) e do FPE (Fundo de Participação dos Estados) da quota-parte do ICMS, respectivamente. Neste estudo, as receitas dos municípios são apresentadas separadamente; o que se busca, ao compará-las com a evolução das suas despesas em determinado período, apreender a capacidade de poupança própria corrente e a capacidade dos municípios de liquidarem suas despesas, mediante a utilização de suas receitas próprias; bem como, conhecer o quanto estes dependem das transferências intergovernamentais para realização de investimentos. Para realização da pesquisa, optou-se por uma abordagem quantitativa. Quanto aos fins, a pesquisa é exploratória e, como meios de investigação adotou-se a pesquisa documental e bibliográfica. Utilizou-se do critério do PIB, para identificar os municípios que apresentavam maior dependência de receitas intergovernamentais, no Estado de Goiás. Os resultados revelam que há capacidade de investimento, mas que esta é positiva se utilizado os recursos de terceiros; e que o índice de capacidade de poupança própria em todos os municípios estudados foi negativo. Conclui-se que não há recursos oriundos da poupança própria para serem aplicados em investimentos. Os resultados demonstraram ainda que as receitas oriundas de transferências intergovernamentais representam a maior parte da receita total dos municípios; que as receitas próprias correntes são insuficientes frente aos gastos municipais; tal fato evidencia que os municípios dependem dos recursos da União e Estados para que possam se manter. / This paper aims to present the investment and savings capacity of the lowest-GDP towns of the State of Goiás, in the period from 2004 to 2013. For their revenue composition the towns, besides their own tax collection revenue, count on the revenues of intergovernmental transfers, receiving their share of the ICMS (tax on merchandise and services circulation) through the FPM (Towns Participation Fund) and the FPE (States Participation Fund), respectively. In this study, the towns income is presented separately, seeking, by comparing them with the evolution of their expenses in a given period, to understand their ability to manage their own savings and to pay for their expenses using their own resources; as well as, to know how much they depend on intergovernmental transfers for their investments. We have chosen a quantitative approach to carry out this research. It has exploratory purposes and, as means of investigation we have adopted the documentary and bibliographic research. The GDP criterion has been used in order to identify the towns with greater dependence on intergovernmental revenues, in the State of Goiás. The results show that there is some investment capacity, but that this is only positive if the resources of third parties are used; and the saving capacity index in all the studied municipal districts was negative. It is concluded that there are no funds from their own savings to be invested. The results showed that the revenues of intergovernmental transfers represent the greatest part of the total revenue of the towns; that their own resources are insufficient to pay for their expenses; and this fact shows that the towns depend on the resources of the Union and States in order to keep up with their commitments.

A presente pesquisa aborda a temática do federalismo e políticas públicas, mais especificamente, das relações intergovernamentais que se desenvolvem em arranjos de cooperação intergovernamental. O objetivo do estudo é compreender como ocorreu a implantação da estratégia de consórcios públicos de saúde no Ceará e como se dá a cooperação intergovernamental entre o governo estadual cearense e seus municípios dentro do arranjo. Dois pressupostos nortearam o trabalho: a relevância da trajetória local e do arranjo federativo sanitário para análise do caso cearense. Utilizou-se abordagem metodológica qualitativa, através uso de pesquisa bibliográfica, análise documental e entrevistas semiestruturadas com os atores envolvidos na implantação e gestão dos consórcios. Os resultados do trabalho mostram que houve três principais movimentos de descentralização da saúde no Ceará: a implantação do Programa de Agentes de Saúde; o processo de microrregionalização; a implantação do PROEXMAES, a qual os consórcios estão vinculados. A análise dos movimentos revelou que há incrementalismo no processo de descentralização da saúde e na atuação do governo estadual, sem grandes rupturas na continuidade das políticas públicas. Os governos municipais sabiam da necessidade de se trabalhar na lógica regional. Todavia, a capacidade de oferta destes municípios era muito baixa, isto é, administrativamente a microrregionalização já estava implementada, mas as regiões continuavam com os mesmos vazios assistenciais. Os consórcios públicos de saúde vêm para ajudar a preencher este vazio regional e manter o governo estadual no papel de coordenador do processo de regionalização da saúde. Percebe-se que a escolha pelos consórcios foi um misto da trajetória institucional da política de saúde no Ceará e fatores conjunturais. O processo de implantação dos consórcios de saúde no Ceará foi idealizado pelo governo estadual e foi conduzido de maneira centralizada, apesar dos momentos diálogo com os municípios. A relação de coordenação na estratégia de consorciamento só se estabelece com a definição do desenho de arranjo de cooperação vertical estado/municípios. As relações que se estabelecem nos consórcios são caracterizadas por três dinâmicas: a) homogeneização versus respeito às heterogeneidades locais; b) interdependência versus autonomia; c) coordenação vertical versus coordenação horizontal. Por fim, entende-se que a estabelecida é de parceria, mais do que isso, é uma relação de coordenação federativa com mútuo benefício aos entes governamentais envolvidos. De maneira ainda superficial, considera-se que os consórcios verticais possuem vantagens em relação aos consórcios intermunicipais, sobretudo, devido à lógica de negociação do Sistema Único de Saúde e à realidade de carências dos municípios brasileiros / The current research approaches the issue of federalism and public policies, but specifically, the intergovernmental relations that are developed in arrangements of intergovernmental cooperation. The studys objective is to comprehend how the implementation of the State of Ceará health public consortia strategy occurred and how does the cooperation between the state government of Ceará and its municipalities inside the arrangement happen. Two assumptions guided the work: the relevance of the local trajectory and the sanitary federative arrangement for analysis of the case of Ceará. It used the qualitative methodological approach, by means of bibliographical research, documental analysis and semi-structured interviews with actors involved in the consortia implementation and managements. The results showed that there were three main moviments in the health decentralization in Ceará: the implementation of the Programa de Agentes de Saúde; the process of microregionalization; and the implementation of the PROEXMAES, form which the consortia are connected. The movements analysis revealed that there is incrementalism in the process of decentralization in health and the state government performance, without breaks in continuing public policies. The municipal governments knew the necessity to work on regional logic. However, these municipalities supply ability was very low, that is, in administrative terms the microregionalization was already implemented, but the regions continued with the same assistent emptiness. The health public consortia come to help fill this regional emptiness and keep the state government in the role of coordinator of the health regionalization process. It is perceptive that the choice for consortia was a mix of the institutional trajectory of the health policy in Ceará and conjectural problems. The process of implementation of health consortia in Ceará was idealized by the state government and conduced in a centralized way, although the moments of dialogue with the municipalities. The coordination relation in the consortium strategy is stablished only with the definition of a design of the vertical state/municipality cooperation arrangements. The relations stablished in the consortia are characterized by three dynamics: a) homogenization versus respect to local heterogenizations; b) interdependency versus autonomy; c) vertical coordination versus horizontal coordination. Last, it is understood the relation stablished as a partnership, more than that, it is a relation of federative coordination with mutual benefits to the governmental entities involved. Still in a superficial way, it is considered that vertical consortia have advantages comparing to intermunicipal ones, especially due to negotiation logic of the Sistema Único de Saúde and the reality of deficiency of Brazilian municipalities

"Sudan has been selected for purposes of this study because of its recent stride towards securing peace through a comprehensive political reorganisation, which for the most part employs the notion of federalism. Indicentally, the Interim National Constitution of Sudan, adopted on 9 July 2005 (Interim Constitution), provides for a decentralised system of governance. The Interim Constitution grants Southern Sudan autonomy to extend over a six-year period, which will culminate in a referendum in the South on whether it should remain part of Sudan or secede to form another state. ... This study will consist of five chapters. Chapter one will principally set out the content and objective of the study. Chapter two will be the theoretical framework comprising an analysis of the concept of federalism from which the notion of autonomy is derived. The significance of the federal principle in meeting the challenges of multiculturalism will also form part of the discussion. Chapter three will outline the history of federalism in Sudan and attempts at its use as a tool for political integration. This chapter will comprise an analysis of the content of autonomy under the Addis Ababa Agreement of 1972. Chapter four will consist of an analysis of the federal principle as embodied in the Interim National Constitution of Sudan. In so doing, it is expected that its potential perils and possibilities of success will be brought to the fore. Chapter five will comprise conclusions drawn here from." -- Introduction. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2005. / Prepared under the supervision of Professor Nico Steytler at the Faculty of Law, Community Law Centre, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/dissertations.html / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

Les quatre articles de recherche qui composent cette thèse étudient le partage de ressources fiscales utilisées pour produire des biens publics communs ou des transferts pour améliorer la stabilisation macro-économique. Dans le premier chapitre, on considère un problème de centralisation optimale avec des juridictions qui ont des préférences hétérogènes pour les biens publics et une base mobile pour les financer. On adopte un modèle théorique avec une structure fédérale et un continuum de biens publics afin de porter plusieurs conclusions normatives sur le degré optimal de centralisation. La contribution du deuxième chapitre est de considérer un modèle de concurrence fiscale où les biens publics sont potentiellement caractérisés par des effets de déversement entre juridictions. On démontre que la coopération totale peut être atteinte si les effets de déversement dans la production de biens publics sont suffisamment grands pour l’emporter sur les incitations à demeurer un pays non-coopératif avec des taxes faibles. Dans le troisième chapitre, on construit un modèle DSGE de la zone euro (avec un cœur et une périphérie) avec des rigidités nominales, financières et sur le marché de l’emploi. Un modèle de référence où les politiques sont uniquement nationales, comme c’est le cas aujourd’hui, est établi pour le calibrage et celui-ci reproduit des observations empiriques pour la zone euro. Ensuite, on introduit une assurance chômage commune afin d’étudier ses propriétés stabilisatrices. Le quatrième chapitre analyse comment une capacité fiscale ciblant directement les ménages peut améliorer la stabilisation lorsque les taux d’intérêt sont au plancher égal à zéro. / The four research articles composing this PhD dissertation study the sharing of fiscal resources used to provide common public goods or transfers to contribute to macroeconomic stabilization. In the first chapter, we consider an optimal centralization problem with jurisdictions that have heterogeneous preferences for public goods and tax a mobile base to finance them. We adopt a theoretical model with a federal structure and a continuum of public goods to draw several normative conclusions from the study of the optimal degree of centralization. The contribution of this second chapter is to consider a tax competition model where public goods potentially exhibit cross-border spillovers. We show that full cooperation can be attained if spillovers in public good provision are high enough to remove the incentives to remain a low-tax non-cooperative player. In the third chapter, we build a DSGE model of the euro area (with a core and a periphery) with nominal, labor and financial rigidities. A baseline model where policies are only national, as it is the case now, is set as the reference for calibration which reproduces key empirical observations for the euro area. Then, we implement a common unemployment insurance and study its stabilization properties. The fourth chapter focuses on how a fiscal capacity targeting directly households can improve stabilization at the zero lower bound.

The 1995 Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia redesigned the new country’s federal structure according to ethnic lines and formally guaranteed the right of self-determination for every Ethiopian ethnocultural group. But not all the ethnic communities were allowed to administer their own state-region and, furthermore, to exercise the right of self-determination. This is the case of the Sidama ethnocultural group which, after two attempts, one of that failed and one still in progress, does not have the opportunity to exercise political autonomy over an own territorial region. The Sidama self- determination process’ evolution and their race to a political and regional autonomy represent a systemic gap within the federal model acquired in 1991, a contradiction between the federal rule of law and the pressures of a government that acts as if it were in power of a unitary and centralized state. Following this relevant issue at the core of this federal prototype’s assumption, this thesis aims to analyse if ethnic federalism formula could guarantee equal rights and freedom to all the Nations, Nationalities and Peoples of Ethiopia and could provide a solution to face the Ethiopian ethnocultural groups’ requests of self-determination. The still ongoing process of self-determination demanded by the Sidama people will be a fundamental element to study and to evaluate the Ethiopian federal model and its impact on the ethnonationalist claims.

Education policy and funding is, and has historically been, the purview of the individual states. Each state developed its own education system and did so within the specific historical contexts unique to that state. Although federal involvement in education policy has grown drastically since the enactment of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2002, education policies and practices are still largely controlled by the individual states. In addition, for most states the single largest expenditure of state and local government resources is education. This dissertation addresses the question of whether differences in educational practices and policy outcomes are attributed to state political culture. A path analysis model was used to analyze causal relationships between state education policy outcomes and political culture, as well as other variables identified by the literature as strongly tied to student achievement or state policy outcomes such as: societal factors, economic factors, political factors, and education practices. A major goal of this research was to identify factors that may be influencing the success of national education policies, including the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1964 (ESEA) and its subsequent reauthorizations such as the NCLB Act of 2002. These policies address long-standing education policy issues—such as the achievement gap between minority and impoverished students and their statistically higher achieving peers. The results indicate that political culture does influence differences in policy outcomes, although indirectly through other variables such as societal and economic factors. Very often factors such as societal and economic factors are treated only as causes or predictors of student achievement and other policy outcomes. This analysis shows these causes to themselves be functions of political culture, providing additional insight into factors influencing state policy outcomes in order to aid public administrators in the development and implementation of more successful policies.

While reading a news article about the upcoming presidential election one day, I noticed a trend. The vast majority of political articles discuss what the federal government should do, but almost never cover what it could do. In elementary school, American children are taught that the Constitution, a 4,543-word document, is the place from which all federal power is derived; but the Constitution says nothing about the regulation of travel, narcotics, or the vast majority of other areas that affect the way we live our daily lives, so where does that power come from? After some preliminary research, I discovered that a great deal of it comes from how the Supreme Court has interpreted two Constitutional Clauses in particular (The Necessary and Proper Clause, and the Commerce Clause) and decided to dig deeper. This thesis is a product of that research. Through a historical overview of Supreme Court jurisprudence on these two clauses, this thesis will reveal that, one case at a time, federal power has gradually expanded through the centuries and shows no sign of slowing, the effect of which is the degradation and potential devolution of American federalism, the backbone upon which this country was founded.