Federalism, Public Choice and Local Management Capacity¹

1 An earlier version of this paper was read by Beverly Cigler. John Gargan. Richard Higgins. William McCoy, Terry Rhodes, and Gordon Whitaker. Whatever merits it has are due to their constructive help. Its warts are mine.

Abstract

This paper brings together the major arguments of federalism as reflected in the Federalist Papers, public choice as it relates to local government management, and national government programs concerning local management capacity. Comparisons and contrasts are drawn, and a suggestion is made that capacity building has been less successful than its progenitors had hoped, at least in part, because it has denied the desirability of local diversity inherent in federalism and supported by the public choice school.

Notes

1 An earlier version of this paper was read by Beverly Cigler. John Gargan. Richard Higgins. William McCoy, Terry Rhodes, and Gordon Whitaker. Whatever merits it has are due to their constructive help. Its warts are mine.