Local governance and federal political systems

Abstract

Federal theory and federal scholarship have paid little attention to the role of local communities and their governments, which receive scant recognition in the constitutional and institutional arrangements of mature federal systems such as Australia, Canada, and the United States. However, local governments have become extensively entangled in the fiscal relations and social service delivery of federal political systems. Moreover, it can be argued that localities in general and international cities in particular will play a more important role in the decades to come. This role may be particularly pronounced in emergent federal systems. It is important, therefore, to bring local communities and their governments into play as we try to understand the evolving nature of federal governance.