Does Efficiency Shape the Territorial Structure of Government?

Abstract

This article asks three questions. Why is government organized across multiple levels? Does efficiency determine the level at which decisions are made? Does efficiency frame how policy problems are bundled in jurisdictions? Rather than examine how government structure may or may not lead to efficient outcomes, this article considers how efficiency constrains government. The purpose here is to probe fundamental commonalities of government structure which are usually taken for granted because they exist in an otherwise fluctuating political universe.

Keywords: decentralization, multilevel governance, regions, local government, federalism