The Global Debt Crisis: Haunting U.S. and European Federalism

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debt crises have placed strains not only on the European Union’s nascent federal system but also on the federal system in the United States. Old confrontations over fiscal responsibility are being renewed, often in a more virulent form, in places as far flung as Detroit, Michigan, and Valencia, Spain, to say nothing of Greece and Cyprus. Increasing the complexity of the issue has been public sector collective bargaining , now a component of most federal systems. The attendant political controversies have become the debate of a generation. Paul Peterson and Daniel Nadler have assembled experts from both sides of the Atlantic to break down the structural flaws in federal systems of government that have led to economic and political turmoil. Proposed solutions offer ways to preserve and restore vibrant federal systems that meet the needs of communities struggling for survival in an increasingly unified global economy. Advance Praise for THE GLOBAL DEBT CRISIS “The Global Debt Crisis is a brilliant advance on the central peril of modern democracy. Peterson and Nadler and their colleagues show, in lucid detail, that the American and European debt crises grew from within our federal systems of layered sovereignty—and that the way out requires strengthening, not weakening, our federal structures. Readers will learn how federalism and financial markets can fortify democratic accountability at every level and how centralizing debt can jeopardize both solvency and democracy. This is first-rate scholarship with political punch.” —Christopher DeMuth, former president of the American Enterprise Institute Contributors Andrew G. Biggs (American Enterprise Institute); César Colino (National Distance Education University, Madrid); Eloísa del Pino (Instituto de Políticas y Bienes Públicos , Madrid); Henrik Enderlein (Hertie School of Governance, Berlin); Cory Koedel (University of Missouri); Carlos Xabel Lastra-Anadón (Harvard University); Daniel Nadler (Harvard University); Shawn Ni (University of Missouri); Amy Nugent (Government of Ontario, Canada); James Pearce (Mowat Centre, University of Toronto, Canada); Paul E. Peterson (Harvard University); Michael Podgursky (University of Missouri); Jason Richwine (Washington, D.C.); Jonathan Rodden (Stanford University); Daniel Shoag (Harvard University); Richard Simeon (University of Toronto, Canada); Camillo von Müller (University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, and Leuphana University, Germany); Daniel Ziblatt (Harvard University) Brookings Institution Press Washington, D.C. www.brookings.edu/press Cover image: The Fortune Teller, 1594, by Michelangelo da Caravaggio. Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images Cover design by Peggy Archambault ...