From the federalist/anti-federalist debate of the U.S. founding to the current wave of decentralization in developing countries, this course analyzes the theory and practice of federalism, or multi-tiered governance. Drawing on literature at the intersection of political science and economics, we focus on the allocation of power across tiers of government and its consequences for policy outcomes. Special attention will be devoted to fears of and protections against an overreaching national government, competition among lower-tiered governments, the distinct problems of political accountability when jurisdictions overlap, and the causes and consequences of increasing decentralization. Although we begin by building political and economic theories of federalism, we quickly move to empirical studies of policymaking, examining cases from around the world.
