Die ökonomische Konstitution eines föderalen Systems

Thomas Apolte examines whether a decentralization of fiscal policy, regulation and redistribution in a federal state is both viable and desirable. Especially, the question is raised as to whether institutional competition among decentralized governments in federal states may lead to an improvement of economic welfare or rather to problems of market failure. The author concludes that no general answer can be given and that federal constitutions should thus be sufficiently flexible with respect to the assignment of political obligations to different governmental levels. Based on these conclusions and on experiences with the history of the constitution of the United States some guidelines for a future federal constitution of the European Union are developed.