ABSTRACT
China is unique in its history, its culture, its size, and many aspects of its recent political and economic development. Given this uniqueness, it is not surprising that there has been considerable debate about the relevance of China’s recent economic experience for other countries. 1 For the same reason, it is not obvious that China can make much use of what it might learn from the rest of world about matters such as the design of intergovernmental fiscal relations, which are, in most respects, inherently country-specific. The way in which any country organizes its public sector is invariably a function of its history, geography, political balance, policy objectives, and other characteristics that vary sharply from country to country.
