[pt] Os consórcios intermunicipais podem ser vistos como uma arena política federativa de cooperação horizontal, voltada para a produção compartilhada de decisões sobre políticas públicas. Nos últimos vinte anos, eles ganharam maior evidência, diante de um contexto no qual os municípios assumiram maiores responsabilidades na provisão de serviços sociais e execução de políticas públicas, e quando se fortaleceram como instrumento de gestão capaz de solucionar problemas que surgem de situações de interdependência entre os municípios e de casos em que a atuação regionalizada possibilita melhores condições de coordenação das ações entre os entes federativos. A dissertação analisa duas experiências de consorciamento no Estado do Rio de Janeiro, o Consórcio Intermunicipal de Saúde da Baixada Fluminense (CISBAF) e o Consórcio Intermunicipal Lagos São João (CILSJ). A metodologia de análise foi assentada sobre a autonomização institucional, a presença de mecanismos de controle democráticos e a vitalidade política em torno de uma coesão interna. A análise dos resultados obtidos identifica evidências de consolidação dos dois consórcios selecionados e indica diferenças entre os padrões institucionais do CISBAF e do CILSJ. Essas diferenças são explicadas (i) pela estratégia de coordenação e transferência de autoridade sobre a implementação e execução de políticas públicas dos governos federal e estadual em cada setor envolvido, (ii) pelas características da trajetória de cada caso, e (iii) pelos mecanismos que mantêm os municípios envolvidos e atraídos pela sua institucionalidade decisória. / [en] Intercity consortia may be seen as a federative political arena of horizontal cooperation, focused toward the shared production of policy decisions. In last twenty years, they have received growthing appreciation in context of a more active role for the municipalities on providing social services and policy-making. Furthermore, those arrangements become stronger as a management tool to solve problems of interdependence between the cities and when the regionalized activity enables better coordination of activities among the federal entities. The paper analysis two inter-municipal consortia in the State of Rio de Janeiro, Consórcio Intermunicipal de Saúde da Baixada Fluminense (CISBAF), that involves health policies, and Consórcio Intermunicipal Lagos São João (CILSJ), for environmental and water management. The analytical methodology was constructed based on institutional autonomy, presence of mechanisms of democratic control and maintenance of internal cohesion. The results indicates that the two cases are consistency experiences and identify some differences between their institutional patterns, which are explained by (i) the strategy of coordination and authority transfer over the policy-decision-making and policy-making, (ii) the path features in each case, and (iii) the mechanism used to keep the municipalities linked in the institucionalized decision proccess of the consortium.

In Russia federalism and the design of federal institutions have been greatly debated topics ever since the beginning of the 1990s. When the newly elected Russian president Vladimir Putin introduced a number of federal reforms in May 2000 it represented the culmination of a debate on federalism that had been triggered by the political and economic crisis of 1998. In many ways these reforms entailed a different perspective on federalism, or in the terminology of this thesis a new “federal paradigm”, from the one that had dominated most of the Yeltsin era. At the same time the relations between federal and regional authorities, often referred to as intergovernmental relations, appeared to become less confrontational and fragmented than before. This work examines this latest stage in the Russian state-building process. In particular two elements are scrutinized. The first is the shift of federal paradigms that the federal reforms reflected. Combining organisation theory and historical institutionalism it is argued that the origins of federal paradigm shifts often can be traced to the federal system itself. In Russia the failure of the federal system manifested through the political and economic crisis of 1998 changed many governmental actors’ views on federalism. However, it was not until Putin became president that the new federal paradigm could consolidate. The second element concerns the connections between the new federal paradigm and the mode of intergovernmental relations. This work presents the argument that the way in which federalism is interpreted and conceptualised by governmental actors is important for the variation of intergovernmental relations across and within federal systems. Deriving from federal theory and some comparisons with other federal systems it is concluded that the federal paradigm that Putin represented in his first presidential term was on the whole more conducive for coordinate intergovernmental relations, at least in the short term.

The 2002 ratification of the Kyoto Protocol by the government of Canada represents an interesting case study in Canadian federalism. This thesis seeks to explore the perspective of the government of Saskatchewan during the debate surrounding the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. In examining Saskatchewans perspective, this thesis uses the theoretical framework developed by Richard Simeon in Federal-Provincial Diplomacy: The Making of Recent Policy in Canada. In particular, the four major sources of intergovernmental conflict identified by Simeon, economic conflict, ideological conflict, political competition, and differences in perspective, will be used to examine Saskatchewans reaction to the ratification to the Kyoto Protocol. Climate change policy provides interesting insights into Canadian federalism. Constitutional authority in environmental policy is concurrently shared between both levels of government. At the same time, the federal government has authority to make international treaties, but requires provincial consent to implement those treaties in areas of provincial jurisdiction. Unlike other previous intergovernmental negotiations, the Kyoto Protocols ratification also introduces international elements and considerations to domestic federal-provincial relations, which have rarely been explored in academic literature surrounding Canadian federalism. As such, this thesis hopes to use the case study of Saskatchewans perspective on Kyotos ratification as a means of expanding on the relevance of Simeons framework through the consideration of unexplored international factors on Canadian federalism.

Environmental policy in the U.S. is often enacted at both the federal level and the state level. This dissertation uses unique data derived from a combination of a detailed simulation model of the U.S. electricity sector and an integrated assessment model of air pollution dispersion and valuation to examine three problems in state and federal environmental policy. These data represent the “taxes” (or shadow cost of abatement) on sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides that are efficient for each state when considering only their own costs and benefits, and also the level of federal uniform tax on the same pollutants that maximizes each state’s net benefits. This data is used in three analyses. First, we examine the case of environmental federalism. Differences in spillovers across states, together with differences in population density and local cost structures create substantial spatial heterogeneity in the economics of air pollution. Uniform federal control and state level control both have advantages and disadvantages, and it is unclear which is more efficient. For the case of sulfur dioxide (nitrogen oxides), when states choose their own level of pollution, 31.5% (76.2%) of the potential benefits under the nationally optimal scheme are lost. The uniform tax only results in a loss of 0.19% (2.32%) of the potential benefits. The data derived, which are directly based on the costs and benefits of air pollution, provide a broad measure of constituent interest. These variables are used to explain state adoption of green electricity policies and federal legislative voting on environmental issues. In contrast to previous studies, it is found that constituent interest and ideology are both important determinants in the formation of environmental policy. Lastly, it is widely known in the literature that states act strategically when choosing policies. This result also persists for state-level environmental stringency. We use unique weighing matrix specifications to distinguish between tax competition and competition based on spillover effects. It is also shown that higher marginal damages of pollution limit strategic behavior.

We address the questions on what determines local government proliferation, specifically on the impact of intergovernmental transfers on proliferation. On exploring the determinants of proliferation, we provide a more elaborate empirical technique than exists in the literature by employing panel binary outcome, survival regression, as well as count analysis to capture the time varying effect from intergovernmental transfers. We also examine the impact of proliferation on service delivery outcomes and construct channels by which the policy may affect the outcomes in the education and health sectors. We apply panel difference-in-difference estimation and we uniquely identify the different treatment group and thus control for the plausible differential impact on outcomes in regards to changes in intergovernmental transfers. On the determinants of local government formation, there are likely competing effects across transfers on the decision to proliferate as well as on the extent of fragmentation given that we find (1) the lump-sum conditional grants positively influence the probability of proliferation, (2) a province with higher median share of equalization grants associates with higher number of local governments, (3) higher equalization grants implies a longer duration to the proliferation event, and (4) higher tax sharing in the proliferated local governments reflects higher stability where stability refers to the longer duration to the sequential proliferation event. The findings suggest the tactical central-local behavior may be present, however, the support of rent-seeking hypothesis on proliferation should not be generalized to overall system of transfers. On the impact from the proliferation policy, the education and health outcomes estimations provide mixed results within the treatment group. The findings shed light on the current practice of administrative or political decentralization, specifically on the competing local-central preferences within each sector on measured service delivery outcomes. The results from difference-in-difference (DID) estimations show support on attainment of education outcome in new local governments represented by a reduction in the dropout rate but not on the quality of education in terms of higher students’ tests scores even though there is a relatively higher conditional grants allocated to the proliferated local governments. Meanwhile, in terms of infant mortality rate, we only find evidence of improvement in infant mortality on the originating local government but not on the new local governments. Controlling for selectivity and production function covariates have not changed the pattern of the impact.

The Supreme Court case, Gonzales v. Raich (2005), ruled medical marijuana use, authorized by the State of California, was subject to federal prosecution and regulation under the interstate commerce clause.

This thesis begins with a historical analysis of the legal precedent which has granted the federal government exceptional power over immigration legislation, and demonstrates how that authority has expanded in the last half-century. It then proposes an alternative scheme which would embrace immigration federalism and allow states a larger, but still closely regulated, role in legislation over aliens.

The effect of federalism on the development of public policy is a widely debated topic. In terms of environmental policy, this issue assumes greater importance because of the lack of clarity in the constitutional division of powers. It is the purpose of this research to examine environmental impact assessment (EIA) — one of the higher-profile aspects of environmental policy — in order to establish how intergovernmental relations in Canada have affected policy and process development in this area. It is hypothesized that unilateral federal action in this policy area contributes to a corresponding increase in the stringency of provincial EIA processes. To test this, a two-step analysis is adopted: first analyzing developments at both the federal and provincial levels from 1985-1995 — a period which witnessed exceptionally high levels of public concern for the environment and increased federal involvement in EIA — and second discussing key events and agreements which affected intergovernmental relations and determining whether these related to those developments identified. This research finds that greater federal involvement in EIA was a catalyst for some positive reform at the provincial level, although this result varied significantly between the provinces examined. Based on the evidence gathered, it is concluded that some form of intergovernmental collaboration and competition both have a place in the development of EIA policy and that neither should be pursued as an end in itself.

The 2002 ratification of the Kyoto Protocol by the government of Canada represents an interesting case study in Canadian federalism. This thesis seeks to explore the perspective of the government of Saskatchewan during the debate surrounding the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. In examining Saskatchewans perspective, this thesis uses the theoretical framework developed by Richard Simeon in Federal-Provincial Diplomacy: The Making of Recent Policy in Canada. In particular, the four major sources of intergovernmental conflict identified by Simeon, economic conflict, ideological conflict, political competition, and differences in perspective, will be used to examine Saskatchewans reaction to the ratification to the Kyoto Protocol. Climate change policy provides interesting insights into Canadian federalism. Constitutional authority in environmental policy is concurrently shared between both levels of government. At the same time, the federal government has authority to make international treaties, but requires provincial consent to implement those treaties in areas of provincial jurisdiction. Unlike other previous intergovernmental negotiations, the Kyoto Protocols ratification also introduces international elements and considerations to domestic federal-provincial relations, which have rarely been explored in academic literature surrounding Canadian federalism. As such, this thesis hopes to use the case study of Saskatchewans perspective on Kyotos ratification as a means of expanding on the relevance of Simeons framework through the consideration of unexplored international factors on Canadian federalism.

Smart growth tools address a diverse range of specific concerns, including historic preservation, farmland protection, habitat conservation, flexible architectural design, and expedited land development. Smart growth unites the traditionally separate and competing growth promotion and growth control measures into a single growth accommodation approach. In addition to these important concepts, Henry R. Richmond posits that smart growth must now be explained within the context of “new urbanism” and “new regionalism.” What smart growth tries to accomplish is thus development with implied improvements in quality of life and environmental protection rather than mere urban growth or economic expansion per se. An important obstacle to smart growth measures is that growth problems rarely respect political boundaries. Scattered development patterns, as well as the traffic congestion, environmental degradation, fiscal stresses, and other problems that often accompany them, tend to be regional in nature, extending beyond the boundaries of any one locality. Accordingly, many growth problems are better addressed through regional solutions that federal, state and local smart growth measures my not provide. The general premise of “new regionalism” is that the economic health of the city and its outlying areas are inseparably intertwined, and that without regional planning and programs, individual jurisdictions in a single region compete with one another for limited resources and economic investment. New regionalists typically advocate from one of these three competing positions: greater economic prosperity, increased environmental protection, or improved social equity. Consequently, many politicians, advocates and activists are calling for the implementation of integrated policies that address the interrelatedness of all regional challenges, including housing, transportation, water, sewage, and other regional physical infrastructure systems. Denver evidences a suite of tensions between the promise and outcomes of planning with a wider, regional applicability. On the one hand, there is a progressiveness that embraces regional governance, growth management, economic vitality and quality infrastructure. But on the other hand, there is the reality of city sprawl, competitive local government relationships, and a convergence of interest between citizen choice and development industry behavior. This report will illustrate three issues regarding effective and efficient regional planning implementation at local, state and federal levels in the context of regional planning efforts in the Denver Metro Area. First, why does infill development and economic revitalization not only benefit the central city but the region as a whole? Secondly, how do land-use assignments and development design, like Smart Growth and New Urbanism, encourage regional planning efforts towards integrated mass transit? Finally, How does government fragmentation and overlap contribute to the lack of regional consensus and efficient planning? / text