Looking at Canada, Brazil, Germany, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Africa and Switzerland, Federalism and Decentralization in Health Care examines the overall organization of the health system.

Debating federalism in Canada.

Federal systems have proven essential to the integration of many states. In an increasingly interdependent world, today's problems are so global and complex in nature that they can be solved adequately only by means of international and regional cooperation and integration. Federalism, as a feature of political problem-solving, will likely become even more important in the future. Federalism emphasizes the principle of non-violence in political affairs, and it creates the opportunity to realize the so-called right of nations to self-determination below the level of national independence.

The 1990s were marked by democratic reforms throughout Africa, which went in tandem with decentralization reforms. The chapters of the volume all highlight the gradual changes that have taken place since. Long-term structural uncodified factors – be it societal, economic, geographic, demographic – seem to have interacted with the constitutional clauses introduced during the reforms. Some chapters look at how decentralization slowly gave way to recentralization because none of the new subnational entities were politically and economically strong enough to balance off the center; some look at how inherent deficiencies in infrastructure and personnel at the subnational level brought the central government back in; some look at how different subnational units ended up working differently due to differences in demographic and social factors; some look at how uncodified factors came to determine how national politics functioned; some look at how decentralization created new conflicts between ethnic groups competing for the control of the new entities; some look at how decentralization blew new life into traditional authorities. This book was original published as a special issue of Regional and Federal Studies.

The book investigates why a country facing issues that needed to be tackled nationwide chose to decentralize when it moved from authoritarianism to democracy. It discusses the events of the Brazilian constituent assembly and investigates the results of decentralization at the subnational sphere. The results suggest that there was a lack of social consensus on what was to be achieved by decentralization. They suggest that political and economic factors influence the outcomes of decentralization, thus exposing the limits of decentralization on policy results.

This book is an outcome of the round table conference held in 1984 in Switzerland. It deals with decision of decentralization, structure of decentralized units, external power of decentralized unit, financial autonomy and decentralization and the protection of the basic rights.

'Decentralisation in Afrika' is een sobere beoordeling van wat decentralisatie precies kan bereiken. Decentralisatie van overheden in Afrikaanse landen en elders in de derde wereld krijgt de laatste tijd een impuls, vaak gedreven door Multilaterale en bilaterale instanties (de 'donoren'). Maar worden de voordelen hiervan wel gerealiseerd? In dit boek worden vraagtekens gezet bij de kwestie of decentralisatie wel een gunstige uitweg biedt voor de armoede en het conflict in Afrika.