Download or read book Rethinking Decentralization in Developing Countries written by Jennie Ilene Litvack and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1998-01-01 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In an effort to reduce poverty and improve nutrition, this Bank operation assisted the Indian program Operation Flood to develop the dairy industry in India. This study examines the policy changes instituted to support the aid flow to the dairy sector and discusses the lessons learned and benefits realized through improved dairy production. It also presents suggestions for improvement. This program differs from other Bank efforts in that it focuses on a single commodity to alleviate poverty and raise living standards.
Download or read book The Architecture of Government written by Daniel Treisman and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2007-07-02 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the days of Montesquieu and Jefferson, political decentralization has been seen as a force for better government and economic performance. It is thought to bring government 'closer to the people', nurture civic virtue, protect liberty, exploit local information, stimulate policy innovation, and alleviate ethnic tensions. Inspired by such arguments, and generously funded by the major development agencies, countries across the globe have been racing to devolve power to local governments. This book re-examines the arguments that underlie the modern faith in decentralization. Using logical analysis and formal modeling, and appealing to numerous examples, it shows that most are based on vague intuitions or partial views that do not withstand scrutiny. A review of empirical studies of decentralization finds these as inconclusive and mutually contradictory as the theories they set out to test.
Download or read book Rethinking Decentralization in Developing Countries written by Jennie Ilene Litvack and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Rethinking Decentralization written by Jacob Deem and published by McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. This book was released on 2023-07-15 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Federal countries face innumerable challenges including public health crises, economic uncertainty, and widespread public distrust in governing institutions. They are also home to 40 per cent of the world’s population. Rethinking Decentralization explores the question of what makes a successful federal government by examining the unique role of public attitudes in maintaining the fragile institutions of federalism. Conventional wisdom is that successful federal governance is predicated on the degree to which authority is devolved to lower levels of government and the extent to which citizens display a “federal spirit” – a term often referenced but rarely defined. Jacob Deem puts these claims to the test, examining public attitudes in Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Deem demonstrates how the role of citizen attachment to particular manifestations of decentralization, subsidiarity, and federalism is unique to each country and a reflection of its history, institutions, and culture. Essential reading for policymakers, academics, and everyday citizens, Rethinking Decentralization re-centres the public to offer a nuanced way of thinking about federal governance.
Download or read book Decentralization and Adat Revivalism in Indonesia written by Adam D. Tyson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-07-02 with total page 486 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the dynamic process of political transition and indigenous (adat) revival in newly decentralized Indonesia. The political transition in May 1998 set the stage for the passing of Indonesia’s framework decentralization laws. These laws include both political and technocratic efforts to devolve authority from the centre (Jakarta) to the peripheries. Contrary to expectations, enhanced public participation often takes the form of adat revivalism - a deliberate, highly contested and contingent process linked to intensified political struggles throughout the Indonesian archipelago. The author argues adat is aligned with struggles for recognition and remedial rights, including the right to autonomous governance and land. It cannot be understood in isolation, nor can it be separated from the wider world. Based on original fieldwork and using case studies from Sulawesi to illustrate the key arguments, this book provides an overview of the key analytical concepts and a concise review of relevant stages in Indonesian history. It considers struggles for rights and recognition, focusing on regulatory processes and institutional control. Finally, Tyson examines land disputes and resource conflicts. Regional and local conflicts often coalesce around forms of ethnic representation, which are constantly being renegotiated, along with resource allocations and entitlements, and efforts to preserve or reinvent cultural identities. This will be valuable reading for students and researchers in Political Studies, Development Studies, Anthropology and Southeast Asian Studies and Politics.
Download or read book The Architecture of Government written by Daniel Treisman and published by . This book was released on 2014-05-14 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the days of Montesquieu and Jefferson, political decentralisation has been seen as a force for better government and economic performance. This text examines the most influential arguments about the consequences of political decentralisation.
Download or read book Going Local written by Merilee S. Grindle and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2009-03-09 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many developing countries have a history of highly centralized governments. Since the late 1980s, a large number of these governments have introduced decentralization to increase democracy and improve services, especially in small communities far from capital cities. In Going Local, an unprecedented study of the effects of decentralization on thirty Mexican municipalities, Merilee Grindle describes how local governments respond when they are assigned new responsibilities and resources under decentralization policies. She explains why decentralization leads to better local governments in some cases--and why it fails to in others. Combining quantitative and qualitative methods, Grindle examines data based on a random sample of Mexican municipalities--and ventures into town halls to follow public officials as they seek to manage a variety of tasks amid conflicting pressures and new expectations. Decentralization, she discovers, is a double-edged sword. While it allows public leaders to make significant reforms quickly, institutional weaknesses undermine the durability of change, and legacies of the past continue to affect how public problems are addressed. Citizens participate, but they are more successful at extracting resources from government than in holding local officials and agencies accountable for their actions. The benefits of decentralization regularly predicted by economists, political scientists, and management specialists are not inevitable, she argues. Rather, they are strongly influenced by the quality of local leadership and politics.
Download or read book Rethinking the Political Economy of Decentralization written by Raúl A. Ponce Rodríguez and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Decentralization and Local Governance in Developing Countries written by Pranab Bardhan and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2006-06-16 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past three decades the developing world has seen increasing devolution of political and economic power to local governments. Decentralization is considered an important element of participatory democracy and, along with privatization and deregulation, represents a substantial reduction in the authority of national governments over economic policy. The contributors to Decentralization and Local Governance in Developing Countries examine this institutional transformation from comparative and interdisciplinary perspectives, offering detailed case studies of decentralization in eight countries: Bolivia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, South Africa, and Uganda. Some of these countries witnessed an unprecedented "big bang" shift toward comprehensive political and economic decentralization: Bolivia in 1995 and Indonesia after the fall of Suharto in 1998. Brazil and India decentralized in an uneven and more gradual manner. In some other countries (such as Pakistan), devolution represented an instrument for consolidation of power of a nondemocratic national government. In China, local governments were granted much economic but little political power. South Africa made the transition from the undemocratic decentralization of apartheid to decentralization under a democratic constitution. The studies provide a comparative perspective on the political and economic context within which decentralization took place, and how this shaped its design and possible impact. Contributors Omar Azfar, Gianpaolo Baiocchi, Pranab Bardhan, Shubham Chaudhuri, Ali Cheema, Jean-Paul Faguet, Bert Hofman, Kai Kaiser, Philip E. Keefer, Asim Ijaz Khwaja, Justin Yifu Lin, Mingxing Liu, Jeffrey Livingston, Patrick Meagher, Dilip Mookherjee, Ambar Narayan, Adnan Qadir, Ran Tao, Tara Vishwanath, Martin Wittenberg
Download or read book Decentralization written by Brian C. Smith and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-07-28 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1985, Decentralization provides an analytical framework for the comparative study of decentralization in contemporary systems of government. It discusses the structures and processes of all forms of decentralized government and administration, drawing on a wide range of states, developed and developing, capitalist and socialist. The book provides a comparative and theoretical treatment of a subject that for too long has been dealt with in a fragmented and ethnocentric fashion. Decentralization is examined from a theoretical perspective and the political demand for it is analysed. Four key universal themes are then explored: areas, intergovernmental relations, finance and institutions. Decentralization to small-scale communities is discussed and the special claims made for decentralization in developing countries are assessed. Examples are drawn from a wide range of countries throughout the world. The book is intended for courses in public administration, comparative government, urban studies and public policy. It will help both the student and the non-specialist understand an important and topical aspect of government everywhere.
Download or read book Decentralizing Governance written by G. Shabbir Cheema and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2007-08-01 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Brookings Institution Press and Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation publication The trend toward greater decentralization of governance activities, now accepted as commonplace in the West, has become a worldwide movement. This international development—largely a product of globalization and democratization—is clearly one of the key factors reshaping economic, political, and social conditions throughout the world. Rather than the top-down, centralized decisionmaking that characterized communist economies and Third World dictatorships in the twentieth century, today's world demands flexibility, adaptability, and the autonomy to bring those qualities to bear. In this thought-provoking book, the first in a new series on Innovations in Governance, experts in government and public management trace the evolution and performance of decentralization concepts, from the transfer of authority within government to the sharing of power, authority, and responsibilities among broader governance institutions. This movement is not limited to national government—it also affects subnational governments, NGOs, private corporations, and even civil associations. The contributors assess the emerging concepts of decentralization (e.g., devolution, empowerment, capacity building, and democratic governance). They detail the factors driving the movement, including political changes such as the fall of the Iron Curtain and the ascendance of democracy; economic factors such as globalization and outsourcing; and technological advances (e.g. increased information technology and electronic commerce). Their analysis covers many different contexts and regions. For example, William Ascher of Claremont McKenna College chronicles how decentralization concepts are playing out in natural resources policy, while Kadmeil Wekwete (United Nations) outlines the specific challenges to decentralizing governance in sub-Saharan Africa. In each case, contributors explore the objectives of a decentralizing strategy as well as the benefits and difficulties that will likely result.
Download or read book Implementing Decentralized Local Governance written by Anwar Shah and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2004 with total page 45 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Rethinking Decentralization and Local Government in Ghana written by Kwamena Ahwoi and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Foundations for Local Governance written by Fumihiko Saito and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2008-01-15 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Successful reforms need coherent approaches in which a range of stakeholders are willing to share responsibilities and resources in order to achieve the ultimate outcome of poverty reduction in developing countries. This book provides a framework to access intended outcomes generated by decentralization measures implemented in Asian and African countries. It is based on comparative analyses of different experiences of decentralization measures in six developing countries.
Download or read book Decentralization and Service Delivery written by and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2005 with total page 29 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dissatisfied with centralized approaches to delivering local public services, a large number of countries are decentralizing responsibility for these services to lower-level, locally elected governments. The results have been mixed. The paper provides a framework for evaluating the benefits and costs, in terms of service delivery, of different approaches to decentralization, based on relationships of accountability between different actors in the delivery chain. Moving from a model of central provision to that of decentralization to local governments introduces a new relationship of accountability-between national and local policymakers-while altering existing relationships, such as that between citizens and elected politicians. Only by examining how these relationships change can we understand why decentralization can, and sometimes cannot, lead to better service delivery. In particular, the various instruments of decentralization-fiscal, administrative, regulatory, market, and financial-can affect the incentives facing service providers, even though they relate only to local policymakers. Likewise, and perhaps more significantly, the incentives facing local and national politicians can have a profound effect on the provision of local services. Finally, the process of implementing decentralization can be as important as the design of the system in influencing service delivery outcomes.
Download or read book Public Sector Decentralization written by Jerry M. Silverman and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1992-01-01 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper is addressed to a broad audience of development professionals who are interested in both the substance of decentralisation issues and their impact on economic development. The paper summarises experience with alternative decentralisation arrangements and suggests a new analytical framework for assessing the impact of such arrangements on the performance of economic development programmes and projects. Consideration of alternative forms of decentralisation reveals the need to clarify and establish priorities among economic and political objectives. The potential for conflict among multiple objectives and the need to assess decentralisation policies in terms of acceptable trade-offs among those objectives summarises the importance of this paper.
Download or read book The Political Economy of Democratic Decentralization written by James Manor and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1999 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nearly all countries worldwide are now experimenting with decentralization. Their motivation are diverse. Many countries are decentralizing because they believe this can help stimulate economic growth or reduce rural poverty, goals central government interventions have failed to achieve. Some countries see it as a way to strengthen civil society and deepen democracy. Some perceive it as a way to off-load expensive responsibilities onto lower level governments. Thus, decentralization is seen as a solution to many different kinds of problems. This report examines the origins and implications decentralization from a political economy perspective, with a focus on its promise and limitations. It explores why countries have often chosen not to decentralize, even when evidence suggests that doing so would be in the interests of the government. It seeks to explain why since the early 1980s many countries have undertaken some form of decentralization. This report also evaluates the evidence to understand where decentralization has considerable promise and where it does not. It identifies conditions needed for decentralization to succeed. It identifies the ways in which decentralization can promote rural development. And it names the goals which decentralization will probably not help achieve.
