Fiscal Federalism in Developed, LDCs, and Transition Countries: Lessons for Nigeria

摘要

Decentralisation of fiscal activities has become popular in recent years. This approach to intergovernmental finance can improve the allocation of public spending by making it more consistent with the wishes of citizens, and it can provide political glue for countries with regional ethnic diversity. This paper examines such issues as principles of fiscal relation in a federation, tax sharing arrangements, expenditure assignment principles, the performance of national and subnational bureaucracies, and the quality of public expenditure management systems in order to identify conditions and institutions that can significantly reduce the benefits of decentralisation in Nigeria, and other African countries. The paper adopted both descriptive and analytical methods by relying on secondary sources of data gathering. The lessons offered are relevant and useful for Nigeria and other African countries to benchmark upon so that they can enjoy the benefits of decentralisation through the creation of strong fiscal systems and institutions which are the main features of successful federations like Canada, Australia, Germany, and the United States