This book illustrates the decade-long transformation of the Hungarian subnational system with a focus on subnational finance. It builds upon policy analyses prepared by local and international specialists and covers various aspects of municipal life: revenue and expenditure assignments, taxation, intergovernmental transfers, strategic planning, outsourcing, public-private partnership, utility regulation, asset and liability management, municipal enterprises, household arrears, project financing, borrowing, and insolvency resolution. Part one is an overview of developments and policy proposals in the 1990s. Part two provides 28 case studies that address: how to enhance the intergovernmental system, how to build local government expertise in strategic management and finance, and how to design a competitive framework for financing subnational governments. Hungary's transition and its innovative and adaptive local governments have proven the merits of fiscal decentralization.