Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Self-Organizing Federalism: Collaborative Mechanisms to Mitigate Institutional Collective Action Dilemmas , edited by Richard C. Feiock and John T. Scholz.

2010; Oxford University Press; Volume: 41; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/publius/pjq028

1747-7107

Shui‐Yan Tang,

Economic Policies and Impacts

As a federal system is characterized by fragmentation of authority and overlapping jurisdictions, it has always been a major task for students of federalism and public management to understand how various government entities can work together to resolve conflicts and address collective-action problems associated with externalities, collective goods, economies of scale, and other similar situations. What array of self-organizing mechanisms can be used to reduce the transaction cost and collective-action problems inherent in these inter-jurisdictional efforts? How can potential actors overcome the "second-order" decision costs and risks associated with efforts to develop "first-order" self-organizing mechanisms? And how do self-organizing mechanisms in one policy arena interact with those in other arenas? These are the central questions addressed in this outstanding volume edited by Feiock and Scholz. Feiock has done extensive work on mechanisms for resolving public goods and economic development problems in metropolitan areas, and Scholz has worked extensively on local policy networks and partnerships in environmental governance. The present volume is an attempt to integrate their respective work into a common framework and broader research agenda. The volume has a total of 13 chapters, with the first chapter outlining the institutional collective action (ICA) framework and the last chapter providing a summary of the major arguments and findings from other chapters. The rest of the volume includes three chapters that address theoretical issues related to the use of self-organizing mechanisms, four chapters that examine metropolitan service provision issues, and four chapters that examine mechanisms for integrating regional policies.