Market Failures and Multi-layered Collective Action : US Economic Debates

The paper reconstructs the debates in the USA about economic theorizing and policymaking advisory concerning a multilayered system of governments. Beyond apparent similarities, it highlights the ontological divides between OstromTiebout Warren on polycentric governance and Buchanan on competitive federalism on the one side, and Musgrave's and Olson's fiscal federalism. It further underlines how such divides concerning the relative role of individuals, markets, collective author ities, and social order echoed similar debates in Europe related to a multilayered economic system, again depending mostly on different ontological assumptions. [Publisher's text].