lecture notes: decentralization

Question 1

—the transfer of authority and
responsibility for public functions from the central government to
subordinate or quasi-independent government organizations and/or the
private sector—is a complex multifaceted concept.

Answer 1

Decentralization

Question 2

Types of decentralization include

Answer 2

political, administrative, fiscal, and
market decentralization.

Question 3

aims to give citizens or their elected
representatives more power in public decision-making.

Answer 3

political decentralization

Question 4

It is often
associated with pluralistic politics and representative government, but it
can also support democratization by giving citizens, or their
representatives, more influence in the formulation and implementation of
policies.

Answer 4

political decentralization

Question 5

that decisions
made with greater participation will be better informed and more relevant
to diverse interests in society than those made only by national political
authorities.

Answer 5

political decentralization

Question 6

seeks to redistribute authority,
responsibility and financial resources for providing public services among
different levels of government.

Answer 6

administrative decentralization

Question 7

It is the transfer of responsibility for the
planning, financing and management of certain public functions from the
central government and its agencies to field units of government agencies,
subordinate units or levels of government, semi-autonomous public
authorities or corporations, or area-wide, regional or functional
authorities.

Answer 7

administrative decentralization

Question 8

The three major forms of administrative decentralization

Answer 8

de-concentration, delegation, and devolution

Question 9

is often considered to be the
weakest form of decentralization and is used most frequently in unitary
states– redistributes decision making authority and financial and
management responsibilities among different levels of
the central government.

Answer 9

Deconcentration–

Question 10

It can merely shift responsibilities from central
government officials in the capital city to those working in regions,
provinces or districts, or it can create strong field administration or local
administrative capacity under the supervision of central government
ministries.

Answer 10

deconcentration

Question 11

is a more extensive form of decentralization.
Through delegation central governments transfer responsibility for
decision-making and administration of public functions to
semi-autonomous organizations not wholly controlled by the central
government, but ultimately accountable to it.

Answer 11

delegation

Question 12

Governments delegate
responsibilities when they create public enterprises or corporations,
housing authorities, transportation authorities, special service districts,
semi-autonomous school districts, regional development corporations, or
special project implementation units. Usually these organizations have a
great deal of discretion in decision-making.

Answer 12

delegation

Question 13

usually transfers
responsibilities for services to municipalities that elect their own mayors
and councils, raise their own revenues, and have independent authority to
make investment decisions.

Answer 13

devolution

Question 14

local governments have
clear and legally recognized geographical boundaries over which they exercise authority and within which they perform public functions. It is
this type of administrative decentralization that underlies most political
decentralization.

Answer 14

In a devolved system

Question 15

is a core component of decentralization.

Answer 15

financial responsibility

Question 16

can take many forms, including a) self-financing or cost recovery through
user charges, b) co-financing or co-production arrangements through
which the users participate in providing services and infrastructure
through monetary or labor contributions; c) expansion of local revenues
through property or sales taxes, or indirect charges; d) intergovernmental
transfers that shift general revenues from taxes collected by the central
government to local governments for general or specific uses; and e)
authorization of municipal borrowing and the mobilization of either
national or local government resources through loan guarantees.

Answer 16

fiscal decentralization

Question 17

The most complete forms of decentralization from a government’s
perspective are privatization and deregulation because they shift
responsibility for functions from the public to the private sector.

Answer 17

economic/market decentralization

Question 18

can range in scope from leaving the provision
of goods and services entirely to the free operation of the market to
“public-private partnerships” in which government and the private sector
cooperate to provide services or infrastructure.

Answer 18

privatization

Question 19

reduces the legal constraints on private
participation in service provision or allows competition among private
suppliers for services that in the past had been provided by the
government or by regulated monopolies.

Answer 19

deregulation

Question 20

is usually a supporting strategy for more general decentralization in government
operations or service delivery.

Answer 20

civil service