commission on fiscal imbalance...

Commission on Fiscal Imbalance
Texts Submitted for the
International Symposium on
Fiscal Imbalance
Report
Supporting Document 3

ISBN: 2-550-38871-2
Legal deposit
BibliothLque nationale du QuØbec, 2002

Commission on Fiscal Imbalance
i
TABLE OF CONTENTS
General Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................... 1
Decentralization in the United States: Where has the Country Headed? ........................................................................ 15
By William F. Fox
Forces Behind Centralization and Decentralization in the United States ........................................................................ 25
By Bruce A. Wallin
Maintaining Fiscal Equilibrium in a Federation: Germany ............................................................................................. 37
By Paul Bernd Spahn
Reforming Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations in Germany: The Bavarian Point of View ............................................ 55
By Otto Beierl
Fiscal Federalism in Switzerland: A Survey of Constitutional Issues, Budget Responsibility and Equalization ............ 63
By Bernard Dafflon
Balance and Imbalance in the Swiss Federal System ..................................................................................................... 101
By Sonja W°lti
The 2000 Reform of Intergovernmental Fiscal Arrangements in Australia .................................................................... 113
By David J. Collins
Concept of Fiscal Decentralisation and Worldwide Overview ....................................................................................... 145
By Robert D. Ebel and Serdar Yilmaz
Fiscal Federalism in Belgium .......................................................................................................................................... 175
By Marcel GØrard
The Lambermont Agreement: Why and How? ............................................................................................................... 195
By GØraldine Van der Stichele and Magali Verdonck
The Funding of Autonomous Communities in Spain ...................................................................................................... 223
By Pere Gal±
The Finances of Decentralized Authorities and Financial Relations between Authorities at Different Levels in
France Trends and Outlook ............................................................................................................................................. 227
By Guy Gilbert
The Process of Decentralisation in Italy: A Focus on Regional Governments ............................................................... 249
By Laura Raimondo
Decentralization in Some Non-Federal Countries: The Case of the United Kingdom ................................................... 265
By David Heald
Biographical Notes .......................................................................................................................................................... 287

Commission on Fiscal Imbalance
1
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1. I
NTRODUCTION
The Commission on Fiscal Imbalance, set up by the QuØbec government, planned to hold an international symposium
on September 13 and 14, 2001 at which a number of experts were to describe intergovernmental fiscal arrangements in
various countries, namely four established federations (United States, Germany, Switzerland and Australia), one recent
federation (Belgium), one country whose institutions are similar to those of a federal country (Spain) and three non-
federal countries that nonetheless have a multilevel government structure
1
(France, the United Kingdom and Italy). This
selection of countries provides a fairly complete portrait of the existing situation in developed countries with federal
systems
2
and in a few non-federal countries with societies similar to ours. Mr. Robert Ebel of the World Bank Institute
was to provide an overview of the situation around the world, more particularly in developing countries and countries in
transition to a market economy.
Unfortunately, the tragic events of September 11 in New York forced the cancellation of the symposium. Almost all the
speakers had sent a text they intended to use for their presentation during the symposium.