Abstract: The Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden are similar in many respects, not least with regards to the basic administrative set-up: a non-federal task-related division between state, counties and municipalities. In all three countries, counties and municipalities raise a large share of their own revenue, which is then supplemented by government grants. In addition, central government redistributes large amounts of locally collected revenue between the municipalities and the counties respectively, severely hampering local budgetary autonomy.
fiscal decentralisation
Abstract : Switzerland provides a potential laboratory for testing various hypotheses connected with tax competition because of its extremely decentralized fiscal system. Twenty-six cantons (some of them extremely small) have retained the ultimate power of deciding tax questions, and hence not only to limit the Federal level of the State to about 1/3 of total public expenditure, but also to retain absolute power to set their own levels of taxation. Furthermore, citizens can launch referenda on tax issues at any level of government.
Abstract: The arrival of the democratic State in Spain acquired its definitive form, at legal and institutional levels, when the General Courts approved the Constitution on October 31st, 1978, which was ratified on December 6th and sanctioned on December 27th. The establishment of a democratic regime and the recognition of freedom and rights, which our western neighbours already possessed, were complemented with a new set up of the territorial organisation of the state.