Making Decentralization Work Flashcards
Making Decentralization Work
Effective decentralisation requires an effective and efficient division of labour across levels of government as well as appropriate intergovernmental coordination mechanisms to ensure public sector coherence.
What is subnational autonomy?
Subnational autonomy has two interdependent components – policy-making autonomy and budget and financial autonomy.
• Policy making autonomy is the discretion to formulate and implement policies on behalf of local constituencies (devolution) and to better match the implementation of national policies with local preferences. The design of the political and administrative dimensions of decentralisation determines the degree of policy-making autonomy in a given country. Yet, policy-making autonomy should not be
understood as unlimited discretion. It is bounded by legal frameworks in order to ensure public sector coherence.
• Budget and financial autonomy is the discretion to make fiscal decisions and access resources1 accordingly. This means that it is closely linked to fiscal decentralisation.
What do we mean by accountability?
A subnational government can be held accountable for performing a specific function only if it has the fiscal resources and the discretion to perform that function. Yet, accountability is not an automatic outcome of increased resources and discretion at local levels. On the one hand, local and central governments need to create dedicated mechanisms to ensure that responsible individuals can be held accountable by other elected and non-elected officials and/or that public officials are directly answerable to the citizens. On the other hand, accountability also requires informed citizens, who have sufficient capacities and incentives to be able to assess planning and budget processes.
Why Decentralisation Outcomes Vary
Thin knowledge base—Decentralisation is a technically complex field on which there is limited comparative information. Over the years, scholars and practitioners have produced an enormous quantity of research on decentralisation and its outcomes. However, systematic knowledge is still limited and fragmentary, and a large part of empirical literature still focuses on anecdotal evidence.
Lack of blueprint
Inconsistent policy options and reforms—Achieving decentralisation objectives depends on the quality of decentralisation specific policies as well as on their consistency with wider reforms and structural policies. Yet, findings from experience suggest that ensuring consistency and policy coherence is not an easy task.
Each dimension of decentralisation can be designed in many different ways, depending on the choice of policy instruments, tools and modalities for the transfer of competencies. Most people tend to consider each dimension in isolation from the others.
Implementation Challenges: Stalemates and Deadlocks
Decentralisation is one of the most complex reform areas. There is no shortage of
dilemmas that policy makers may encounter. It often involves conflicting political
and economic objectives as well as trade-offs between efficiency and equity.
As a result, designing a decentralisation reform implies making policy and
fiscal choices that do not enjoy unanimous consensus. In addition, these
choices generate winners and losers who in later stages are likely to support
or resist reform implementation.
