These essays examine the competitive mechanisms underlying collective decisions and how they are embedded in institutional settings.

Introduction Gianluigi Galeotti, Pierre Salmon and Ronald Wintrobe; Part I. Trust, Information, and Bureaucracy: 1. Trust and society Russel Hardin; 2. Downsizing trust Ronald Wintrobe; 3. Information and political decision-makers Jean-Dominique Lafay; Part II. Competition and Collusion in Government: 4. Divisible versus indivisible policies: an exploration of clientelistic politics Giorgio Brosio; 5. Founding fathers vs. rotten kids: a positive approach to constitutional politics Gianluigi Galeotti; Part III. Decentralization and Federalism: 6. Fiscal decentralization and Competitive Governments Richard Bird; 7. On the reassignment of fiscal powers in a federal state Stanley Winer; 8. Assigning powers over the Canadian environment Anthony Scott; 9. Art and culture goods and fiscal federalism Francesco Forte; 10. Vertical competition in a unitary state Pierre Salmon; 11. Nationalism and federalism: the political constitution of peace Geoffrey Brennan and Alan Hamlin; 12. A political efficiency case for Federalism in multinational states: controlling ethnic rent-seeking Roger Congleton; 13. Quebec 1995: the rhetoric of the referendum Robert Young; 14. Public subsidies for private firms in a federalist democracy Dennis Mueller; 15. Economic constitutions, protectionism and competition among jurisdictions Viktor Vanberg; 16. A cautious view of international harmonization: implications from Breton's theory of competitive governments Michael Trebilcock and Robert Howse.