Federal Britain: The Case for Decentralisation

by Philip Booth, Ilya Somin (Foreword by)

Overview

The UK has the most centralised system of government amongst major economies. This results in poorer services, lower economic growth and higher taxes. We have also developed an approach to devolution that is incoherent and unstable. This short book proposes an entirely new set of constitutional arrangements. It proposes that the UK should develop a federal structure of government with only a small number of functions such as defence and border control being determined at the UK level. All other functions would be the ultimate responsibility of individual nations within the UK, though Wales, Northern Ireland and England could combine together if they wished. The author also proposes further radical decentralisation of government. Local government should become responsible for a much wider range of functions and raise the revenue to finance them. In areas such as health and education, the government role would be diminished further as parents, families and civil society institutions are provided with finance to directly procure their own services. Overall, this is a radical plan to completely change the nature of government in the UK.It would return power to the people and reverse the long trend of centralisation that has happened since World War I.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780255367141
Publisher:	London Publishing Partnership
Publication date:	11/06/2015
Series:	Readings in Political Economy
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	126
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Philip Booth is Academic and Research Director at the Institute of Economic Affairs and Professor of Finance, Public Policy and Ethics at St Mary’s University, Twickenham. From 1 November 2016, he will be Director of Research and Public Engagement at St Mary’s. Previously, he worked for the Bank of England as an advisor on financial stability issues and has been Associate Dean of Cass Business School. He has written widely, including a number of books, on investment, finance, social insurance and pensions as well as on the relationship between Catholic social teaching and economics. Philip has a BA in economics from the University of Durham and a PhD from City University.

Table of Contents

Contents

The author, viii,
Foreword, ix,
Acknowledgement, xiii,
Summary, xiv,
List of tables, figures and boxes, xviii,
1 Introduction, 1,
2 Local government and devolution: the British constitutional settlement, 12,
3 The problems of fiscal centralisation and the benefits of decentralisation, 27,
4 International experience: the example of Spain, 43,
5 Dealing with the English question: half-baked solutions, 52,
6 A federal solution to the English problem, 58,
7 Further fiscal decentralisation: spending and regulatory responsibilities, 76,
8 Further fiscal decentralisation: revenue raising, 87,
9 Conclusion, 95,
References, 99,
About the IEA, 104,