The Political Geography of Inequality: Regions and Redistribution (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics)
Cambridge University Press, 3/26/2012
EAN 9781107008137, ISBN10: 1107008131
Hardcover, 296 pages, 24 x 16.3 x 2.5 cm
Language: English
This book addresses two questions - why some political systems have more centralized systems of interpersonal redistribution than others, and why some political unions make larger efforts to equalize resources among their constituent units than others. This book presents a new theory of the origin of fiscal structures in systems with several levels of government. The argument points to two major factors to account for the variation in redistribution: the interplay between economic geography and political representation on the one hand, and the scope of interregional economic externalities on the other. To test the empirical implications derived from the argument, the book relies on in-depth studies of the choice of fiscal structures in unions as diverse as the European Union, Canada and the United States in the aftermath of the Great Depression; Germany before and after Reunification; and Spain after the transition to democracy.
1. Regions and redistribution
introduction and overview
2. A theory of fiscal structures in political unions
3. The road ahead
the empirical strategy
4. The European Union
economic geography and fiscal structures under centrifugal representation
5. North America's divide
distributive tensions, risk sharing, and the centralization of public insurance in federations
6. Germany's reunification
distributive tensions and fiscal structures under centripetal representation
7. Endogenous decentralization and welfare resilience
Spain, 1978–2007
8. The political geography of inequality
summary and implications.