This book argues that governments' choices in favour or against strong intergovernmental institutions are not primarily driven by considerations of efficiency but by internal political dynamics within their own boundaries. It applies the argument to Canada, Switzerland, the United States, and finally to the European Union.

Considers. S. 60, to amend the Budget and Accounting Act to require Bureau of Budget to publish a Federal domestic aid programs catalogue and to transfer from OEO to the Bureau of Budget responsibility for the Federal information exchange system (including its Federal domestic aid programs catalogue). S. 2479, to amend the Intergovernmental Cooperation Act of 1968 to permit consolidation of Federal aid programs, facilitate management of joint Federal-state and Federal-local projects, and give Congress oversight authority. S. 2035, to permit consolidation of Federal aid programs.

Considers S. 561, the Intergovernmental Cooperation Act of 1965, and S. 689, to provide for periodic congressional review of Federal grants-in-aid to States and to local units of government.

This book provides a timely evaluation of the EU's ability to act internationally and coordinate policy in a time when it also seeks to meet shifting demands of international cooperation. These include global sustainable development, the challenge of multilateralism and the changing geopolitical order. Analysing the networks of officials and policy professionals in EU development policy, the book yields theoretical insights into dominant processes that characterise EU governance in international cooperation and assesses their role for policy coordination. Overall, this book concludes that EU policy coordination evades intergovernmental control and demonstrates how the agency of EU institutions depends on efforts of member state officials to defend their priorities and identities. Finally, it shows the need to better understand the EU as a collective international actor, beyond the widespread concern with institutional adjustments, which continuously fail to produce the intended outcomes. This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of European and EU politics, EU foreign policy, EU external relations and more broadly to international relations and international development.