ABSTRACT
The operational meaning of federalism is found in the degree to which the constituent units disagree about what should be done, who should do it, and how it should be done. In a word, federalism is about conflict. Under an operative federalism, coordination occurs by interaction among many governments, not by intellectual cogitation by a single one. Federalism means mutuality, not hirearchy, multiple rather than single causation, a sharing instead of a monopoly of power. Most relevant research on economic development falls within two opposing traditions in the study of planning and federalism. One uses a metaphor of bureaucratic planning and the other makes use of political interaction — competition, conflict, bargaining, markets. Although political interaction is designed to clear any number of antagonistic interests, bureaucratic planning depends on a few agencies operating among agreed objectives. The authors' unitary bias is clear: "federal agencies cannot be bound absolutely by whatever the local planning process comes up with.
