Abstract
It is nearly universally presumed that redistribution can be carried out effectively only at the national or even global level, because local redistribution will be negated through personal mobility: recipients will move to high-paying jurisdictions while taxpayers will move away from those jurisdictions. To avoid this situation requires redistribution to be concentrated at national and not at local levels. In contrast to this standard line of argument, we explore how redistribution might be carried out more effectively at local levels than at the national level. To explain this reversal from standard analytical implications, we integrate three concepts that are not present in the standard analysis. These concepts are the Samaritan’s dilemma, co-production, and polycentricity. It is interaction among these three concepts that reverses the implications of the standard analysis of redistribution.
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- 1.
This figure does not include spending social insurance programs (Social Security, Medicare, or Unemployment Compensation), since these are targeted toward a broader population.
- 2.
This figure comes from the regularly-updated “Public Welfare Expenditures” page from the Urban Institute, part of the “State and Local Backgrounders” project.
- 3.
This is an important point to highlight. Polycentricity and administrative decentralization are not synonymous, nor are monocentricity and administrative centralization. It is where the locus of decision-making power lies that distinguishes a monocentric from a polycentric order. Any particular polycentric system might also be administratively centralized if the optimum scale of service provision requires this type of administrative centralization. An organization like Catholic Charities might be thought to be administratively centralized, but still exist in a polycentric order of charitable service providers. Likewise, the network of local governments across any particular state might be considered administratively decentralized, but many will act as monocentric service providers within their jurisdiction.
- 4.
As Olasky (1992) documents, the late 1800s saw the rise in social work as a profession, in contrast to what is now described as social work being a volunteer activity or even a calling.
- 5.
While it is probably more accurate to declare that accidents are jointly caused than to describe them co-produced, the avoidance of accidents is a matter of co-production all the same.
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- 7.
- 8.
Originally, the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program was called the Aid to Dependent Children program. The name was changed in 1962 to reflect the changed focus of the program.
- 9.
The 1962 amendments to the Social Security Act allowed states to apply to the DHHS for an exemption from the AFDC rules in order to conduct pilot programs. However, these waivers were not widely used until the late 1980s.
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Tuszynski, M.P., Wagner, R.E. (2018). Samaritan’s Dilemmas, Wealth Redistribution, and Polycentricity. In: Wagner, R. (eds) James M. Buchanan. Remaking Economics: Eminent Post-War Economists. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03080-3_14
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