Begging bowl meets baseball bat? Lessons for the UK from the Australian Fiscal Model

Abstract

The UK has taken a historic step towards regionalizedgovernment with its creation of a Scottish Parliament and Welsh and Northern Ireland Assemblies.However this has raised important question marks about the existing funding system, the ‘Barnett formula’.The purpose of this article isto examine the experience offered by a mature federal Fiscal system, namely that of Australia.The Australian system, and in particular its . scal system of distribution,is outlined,as are the eVects of this system and the political manipulations of it that have taken place.Issues arising and important mechaimplications
for UK policy makers are then discussed.