The New Federalist

Joseph Garcea is an assistant professor of political studies at the
University of Saskatchewan.

This book advances the virtues of a decentralized Canadian federation (a
subtitle for the book should be “American Public Choice Meets Canadian
Federalism”). Interestingly, however, the book focuses less on
restructuring the relationship between the federal and provincial
governments than on that between the provincial and municipal
governments. This, of course, would not come as a surprise to anyone
familiar with Reagan’s “New Federalism” initiative, which devolved
functions and responsibilities from the national to state and,
ultimately, local governments.

The book’s central theme is the desirability of decentralizing
governmental functions. The two major arguments are that smaller units
are more efficient and better able to adapt to local conditions, and
that individual citizens have more control if government is broken down
into a number of different units. These are echoes of the fundamental
premise of many Utopian Socialists of yesteryear. Indeed, the only
difference is that today the echoes are emanating largely from the right
rather than from the left.

Some might consider the central contention of this book to be
simplistic in that it tends to gloss over the possibility that there are
any significant benefits to be derived from centralization and larger
governmental units. A more sophisticated contingency perspective must be
brought to bear on centralization and decentralization by the new
prophets.