Скачать или смотреть Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations

Intergovernmental fiscal relations, also referred to as fiscal federalism, have been central to contemporary IGR for some time. Fiscal federalism describes the complex of financial transactions, transfers of funds, and accompanying rules and regulations that increasingly characterizes national-state, national-local, and state-local relations.

There have been some forms of financial aid from one governmental level to another throughout U.S. history. Traditionally, many state and local governments have had weaker economic bases and less productive systems of taxation than the national government. Yet state and local governments provide the majority of public services in health, education, welfare, law enforcement, and agricultural services.

It has been suggested that national funds assist states and localities with programs and projects that benefit citizens outside the borders of the recipient government. These so-called ripple effects—more formally known as externalities—justify national monetary support for state or local efforts because of the wider benefits realized from them.

The development of intergovernmental administrative ties gave rise to a new label for the federal system. Unlike the cake metaphors, the new vertical administrative patterns gave rise to the term picket-fence federalism. The picket-fence analogy is evident because national, state, and local administrative officials all have active roles in substate regional functions. The formation of these nearly independent federal-local government systems poses considerable administrative difficulties because it frees districts to compete for grant monies available to all other types of local government.