Community, scale, and regional governance : a postfunctionalist theory of governance, Volume II

Abstract

The book argues that jurisdictional design is shaped by functional and communal pressures. Functional pressures arise from the character of the public goods provided by government: their scale economies, externalities, and informational asymmetries. However, to explain demands for self-rule one needs to understand how people think and act in relation to the communities they conceive themselves belonging. The authors demonstrate that scale and community explain basic features of governance, including the growth of multiple tiers over the past six decades; how jurisdictions are designed; why governance within the state has become differentiated; and the extent to which regions exert authority.