Intergovernmental councils have emerged as the main structures through which the governments of a federation coordinate public policy making. In a globalized and complex world, federal actors are increasingly interdependent. This mutual dependence in the delivery of public services has important implications for the stability of a federal system: policy problems concerning more than one government can destabilize a federation, unless governments coordinate their policies. This book argues that intergovernmental councils enhance federal stability by incentivizing governments to coordinate, which makes them a federal safeguard. By comparing reforms of fiscal and education policy in Australia, Canada, Germany, and Switzerland, this book shows that councils’ effectiveness as one of federalism’s safeguards depends on their institutional design and the interplay with other political institutions and mechanisms. Federal stability is maintained if councils process contentious policy problems, are highly institutionalized, are not dominated by the federal government, and are embedded in a political system that facilitates intergovernmental compromising and consensus-building.

A comprehensive guide to the theory, methodology, and development for modeling systems of systems Modeling and Managing Interdependent Complex Systems of Systems examines the complexity of, and the risk to, emergent interconnected and interdependent complex systems of systems in the natural and the constructed environment, and in its critical infrastructures. For systems modelers, this book focuses on what constitutes complexity and how to understand, model and manage it.Previous modeling methods for complex systems of systems were aimed at developing theory and methodologies for uncoupling the interdependencies and interconnections that characterize them. In this book, the author extends the above by utilizing public- and private- sector case studies; identifies, explores, and exploits the core of interdependencies; and seeks to understand their essence via the states of the system, and their dominant contributions to the complexity of systems of systems. The book proposes a reevaluation of fundamental and practical systems engineering and risk analysis concepts on complex systems of systems developed over the past 40 years. This important resource: Updates and streamlines systems engineering theory, methodology, and practice as applied to complex systems of systems Introduces modeling methodology inspired by philosophical and conceptual thinking from the arts and sciences Models the complexity of emergent interdependent and interconnected complex systems of systems by analyzing their shared states, decisions, resources, and decisionmakers Written for systems engineers, industrial engineers, managers, planners, academics and other professionals in engineering systems and the environment,this text is the resource for understanding the fundamental principles of modeling and managing complex systems of systems, and the risk thereto.

The time is ripe to revisit Canada's past and redress its historical wrongs. Yet in our urgency to imagine roads to reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, it is important to keep in sight the many other forms of diversity that Canadian federalism has historically been designed to accommodate or could also reflect more effectively. Canadian Federalism and Its Future brings together international experts to assess four fundamental institutions: bicameralism, the judiciary as arbiter of the federal deal, the electoral system and party politics, and intergovernmental relations. The contributors use comparative and critical lenses to appraise the repercussions of these four dimensions of Canadian federalism on key actors, including member states, constitutive units, internal nations, Indigenous peoples, and linguistic minorities. Pursuing the work of The Constitutions That Shaped Us (2015) and The Quebec Conference of 1864 (2018), this third volume is a testimony to Canada's successes and failures in constitutional design. Reflecting on the cultural pluralism inherent in this country, Canadian Federalism and Its Future offers thought-provoking lessons for a world in search of concrete institutional solutions, within and beyond the traditional nation-state.

Today, the work of government often involves coordination at the federal, state, and local levels as well as with contractors and citizens’ groups. This process of governance across levels of government, jurisdictions, and types of actors is called intergovernmental relations, and intergovernmental management (IGM) is the way work is administered in this increasingly complex system. Leading authority Robert Agranoff reintroduces intergovernmental management for twenty-first-century governance to a new generation of scholars, students, and practitioners. Agranoff examines IGM in the United States from four thematic perspectives: law and politics, jurisdictional interdependency, multisector partners, and networks and networking. Common wisdom holds that government has “hollowed out” despite this present era of contracting and networked governance, but he argues that effective intergovernmental management has never been more necessary or important. He concludes by offering six next steps for intergovernmental management.

Canadian Federalism is Canada’s leading text on federal institutions and processes. The fourth edition provides extensive updates and covers all the significant developments of the past decade, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s battles with the Supreme Court and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s efforts at a more co-operative approach to intergovernmental relations. It also features two entirely new chapters – one on criminal justice and criminal law, the other on comparative federalism. Specific topics include the Supreme Court’s renewed emphasis on co-operative federalism and a federal–provincial balance tilted more in favour of the provinces, the Trudeau government’s efforts to broker a deal between provinces over pipelines and carbon taxes as part of its commitment under the Paris Agreement, the strains imposed on federal–provincial relations with the influx of refugees, and the changing role of Ottawa and the provinces towards cities and in accommodating Indigenous rights. Examination of these key issues includes discussion of the implications of the 2019 federal election and recent provincial elections.

This book is the result of a collective re¬flection among scholars from 8 federations and decentralized countries (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ethiopia, Germany, Italy, Mexico) who sought to update approaches and arguments on federalism in a post-COVID-19 scenario. On one hand, the pandemic highlighted the importance of federalism to deal with complex intergovernmental problems. On the other hand, federations also faced challenges to coordinate different spheres of government. The pandemic has allowed intense learning about the potential and limits of multilevel governance and federal arrangements in addressing emergencies and crises whose effects spread throughout the country. Regarding contemporary challenges such as climate emergency and democratic backsliding, which take on particular contours in federal, quasi-federal, and decentralized countries, the book offers insightful thoughts for scholars and practitioners. Federalism and federal countries can be pivotal in this debate due to their form of territorial division of power. This volume seeks to contribute to these discussions based on thoughts grounded on different national settings. The volume is organized in 16 chapters that contemplate essential topics on federalism and federations, based both on theoretical refl¬ections and empirical research. The chapters were mainly organized to offer for the authors a comparative perspective between the international debate and the Brazilian context. The book covers central issues such as federalism and institutional forms, federalism and democracy, federalism and de/centralization, managing interdependences and intergovernmental relations, federalism and ethnic diversity and federalism and challenges for the welfare state. Although this book is subject to the scrutiny of time, in line with changes in federations themselves, both organizers and authors aspire to provide ongoing debates with insightful contributions on Federalism and Democracy in Brazil and Beyond. This book is an essential reading for students and scholars of federalism, intergovernmental relations, multilevel governance and comparative politics.

In this insightful book, Arthur Benz introduces a novel analytical approach to comparative research on multilevel governance. Confronting the intricate problems of coordinating local, regional, national and international policies in the face of political polarisation, he makes the case for pragmatic, sustainable and resilient multilevel governance.

Multilevel governance divides powers, includes many veto players and requires extensive policy coordination among different jurisdictions. Under these conditions, innovative policies or institutional reforms seem difficult to achieve. However, while multilevel systems establish obstructive barriers to change, they also provide spaces for creative and experimental policies, incentives for learning, and ways to circumvent resistance against change. As the book explains, appropriate patterns of multilevel governance linking diverse policy arenas to a loosely coupled structure are conducive to policy innovation.

This volume offers the insights of management experts on options such as diversification, mergers and acquisitions, vertical integration, wh at total quality management is all about, and how it fits into the org anizational structure. Health care managers will find proven methods f or planning for future growth and fostering good relationships with cu stomers, government agencies, and suppliers.