JOAN COSTA FONT is Reader in Political Economy and stream convener MPA Social and public policy at the LSE SCOTT L. GREER is an Associated Professor at the University of Michigan, USA.

• Health System Federalism and Decentralization: What is it, why does it Happen, and what does it do?;  J.C.Font & S.L.Greer PART I: BACKGROUND Fiscal and Political Federalism and the Health System; J.C.Font & S.L.Greer PART II: CROSS-COUNTRY EVIDENCE IN TAX FUNDED HEALTH SYSTEMS The Italian Servizio Sanitario Nazionale: A Renewing Tale of Lost Promises; G.Turati Decentralisation and the Spanish Health System: Soft-budget-constraint-modernisation?; J.C.Font The Rise and Fall of Territory in United Kingdom Health Politics; S.L.Greer From Centralization to Decentralization and Back: Norwegian Health Care in a Nordic Perspective; J.Magnussen & P.E.Martinussen PART III: CROSS-COUNTRY EVIDENCE IN SOCIAL INSURANCE SYSTEMS Decentralisation in Health and Social Care in Poland: does Resource Allocation Matter?; K.A.Kuc-Czajkowska  & M.Rabczewska Federalism in Health and Social Care in Austria; B.Trukeschitz, U.Schneide & T.Czypionka Federalism and Decentralization in German Health Care Policy; M.Mätzke Politiques de Santé: The Regional Centralization of French Health Policy; D.K.Jones Devolution, Nationalism, and the Limits of Social Solidarity: The Federalization of Health Policy in Belgium; J.Laible Federalism in Health and Social Care in Switzerland; B.Gerritzen Conclusions; J.C.Font & S.L.Greer

A very welcome contribution testing the impact of health care decentralisation on health policies, accountability and citizens' satisfaction. This book makes clear that political infra-state devolution not only promotes and encourages emulation between jurisdictions but that also, in the absence of fiscal responsibility in these states, impacts negatively on the public budgets of the countries examined. -Guillem Lopez-Casasnovas, Professor of Economics, Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, Spain The pathbreaking chapters in this book are precise when existing accounts are vague, lucid when other accounts are confusing, and politically savvy throughout. The book is a major contribution to the comparative understanding of health, policy, and territorial politics in Europe -Guy Lodge, Institute for Public Policy Research and Nuffield College, University of Oxford, UK