Public Sector Decentralization

Public Sector Decentralization PDF

Author: Jerry M. Silverman

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 1992-01-01

Total Pages: 128

ISBN-13: 9780821322796

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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.

The Political Economy of Democratic Decentralization

The Political Economy of Democratic Decentralization PDF

Author: James Manor

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 152

ISBN-13:

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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.

Decentralization and Infrastructure in the Global Economy

Decentralization and Infrastructure in the Global Economy PDF

Author: Jonas Frank

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-07-03

Total Pages: 497

ISBN-13: 1317438582

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The subnational dimension of infrastructure has emerged as one of the greatest challenges in contemporary public finance policy and management. Ensuring the efficient provision of infrastructure represents a challenge for all countries irrespective of their level of centralization or decentralization. This book proposes an innovative approach for the strengthening of decentralized public investment and infrastructure management. Decentralization and Infrastructure in the Global Economy: From Gaps to Solutions covers the most important aspects of infrastructure investment in a decentralized setting. It discusses infrastructure gaps and the quality of subnational spending; how functional responsibilities, financing and equalization can be designed; sector-specific arrangements in high expenditure areas, such as health, education and roads; key steps of the public investment cycle and management; and analyses the political economy and corruption challenges that typically accompany decentralized infrastructure projects. This book challenges some of the well-accepted principles of intergovernmental fiscal relations and will be useful to researchers and practitioners of public finance policy and management.

Centralized Versus Decentralized Provision of Local Public Goods

Centralized Versus Decentralized Provision of Local Public Goods PDF

Author: Timothy Besley

Publisher:

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 56

ISBN-13:

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This paper takes a fresh look at the trade-off between centralized and decentralized provision of local public goods. The point of departure is to model a centralized system as one in which public spending is financed by general taxation, but districts can receive different levels of local public goods. In a world of benevolent governments, the disadvantages of centralization stressed in the existing literature disappear, suggesting that the case for decentralization must be driven by political economy considerations. Our political economy analysis assumes that under decentralization public goods are selected by locally elected representatives, while under a centralized system policy choices are determined by a legislature consisting of elected representatives from each district. We then study the role of taste heterogeneity, spillovers and legislative behavior in determining the case for centralization.

Market and Socialism

Market and Socialism PDF

Author: János Kornai

Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13:

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This book explores the encounters with market socialism through reforms in China and Vietnam and looks at the distinctions between market socialism and capitalism. The book discusses whether market socialism is compatible with economic integration and whether state ownership can be reconciled with a market economy.

Decentralization and Local Governance in Developing Countries

Decentralization and Local Governance in Developing Countries PDF

Author: Pranab Bardhan

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2006-06-16

Total Pages: 375

ISBN-13: 0262524546

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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

Lectures on Macroeconomic Planning: Centralization, decentralization, planning under uncertainty

Lectures on Macroeconomic Planning: Centralization, decentralization, planning under uncertainty PDF

Author: Leif Johansen

Publisher: North Holland

Published: 1977

Total Pages: 434

ISBN-13:

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Textbook comprising lectures on macro-economic planning both in planned economies and in other economic systems - covers methodologys and theories, the use of econometrics and mathematical models in economic planning, and includes centralization and decentralization of decision making powers, economic policy formulation during times of uncertainty, etc. Diagrams and references.