Answer:
The political and economic consequences of decentralization
Decentralization has become one of the most important forms of contemporary
policy reform and institutional redesign in the last several decades. It is not difficult
to find empirical evidence supporting this claim. A recent survey finds that sixtythree of seventy-five developing countries have been undergoing some decentralization
of authority (Garman et al, 2001, page 205). Moreover, an index of regional authority
in forty-two democracies and semidemocracies reveals that twenty-nine countries
have regionalized and only two have become more centralized since 1950 (Hooghe
et al, 2010). In addition, around half the member states of the European Union have
carried out significant decentralization and regionalization reforms since the 1980s,
while none has become more centralized (Hooghe and Marks, 2001). These have not
been surprising trends when viewed in the broader contexts of governments all around
the world pursuing, in the past half century, greater economic efficiency in the public
sector and stronger grassroots democratic institutions and representation for their
citizens.
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