The Future of Federalism

‘Eccleston and Krever have produced a masterful edited volume on the impact of the world-wide financial crisis on twelve federations or near-federations. The book theoretically informs scholars of democracy, institutions, and, of course, federalism on how fiscal pressures contributed to shaping governance in tough times. The cases are informative and focused. It is a major contribution to our understanding of federalism under duress and could not be more timely.’ – Carol S. Weissert, Florida State University, US‘This book discusses how twelve decentralized countries - some federal, some not - coped with the recent economic crisis. These structured comparative case studies show that the different combinations of rigid and flexible “federal” features found in each country shaped its reaction to changing economic circumstances, both reinforcing the importance of understanding institutional dynamics in analyzing decentralized systems and showing that “federalism” (broadly defined) need not be an obstacle to change but may sometimes be the best way a diverse country can accommodate change.’ – Richard M. Bird, University of Toronto, Canada

Edited by Richard Eccleston, Director, Institute for the Study of Social Change, University of Tasmania and Richard Krever, University of Western Australia, Australia