Review of the hardback: 'This is an excellent book, notable both for its careful analysis of an important period of institutional and policy innovation in Australia's political history, and for the issues these developments raise about the operation of government in a federal system … This is one of the most carefully researched, thoughtful and well-written works on Australian politics to have been published for a long time. It deserves to be widely read by all those with an interest in policy-making and the operation of the Australian federal system.' Campbell Sharman, University of Western Australia

• 1. National problems, federal solutions; 2. The theory and practice of cooperative federalism; 3. SPC, COAG and the politics of collaboration; 4. Achieving cooperation: players and processes; 5. The machinery of intergovernmental relations: an institutional analysis; 6. The institutions of collaborative federalism; 7. Duplication and overlap: new roles, old battles; 8. The future of collaborative federalism; List of references; Index.