Federal Reform Strategies: An Introduction

For large countries, an agenda of economic integration, deregulation and natural resource management reform typically cannot be effectively pursued without the active participation of subnational governments. While most of the literature about federalism and reform is about the reform of federalism, this volume is about reform through federalism. It explores federal reform strategies, that is, ways in which central governments can motivate, incentivise, influence and ensure coordination of subnational policies. It covers such mechanisms as the imposition of conditions on specific-purpose grants to subnational governments, the provision of grants if certain reforms are undertaken, the development of cross-government agreements, and the centralization of power from subnational to the central government. By exploring a range of case-studies, drawn mainly from India and Australia but also covering Indonesia and China, it fills the existing gap in the literature relating to federal reform strategies. This overview provides a conceptual framework, including a typology of strategies, summarizes the case-studies, and draws out some lessons learnt.