Abstract
Decentralization is a process through which a central government transfers authority and functions to sub-national units of the government. Normally there is a cluster of measures involved in this process, and thus decentralization is a shorthand expression. It is one of the most frequently pursued institutional reforms in developing countries, particularly since the late 1980s. The rationale for decentralizing measures derives from diverse origins and is intended to contribute to democratization, to more efficient public administration, to more effective development, and to “good governance.”
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Debates about decentralisation are characterised by a number of fallacies. Major among them is the tendency to view decentralisation as a singular process rather than a multi-dimensional set of relationships; the treatment of decentralisation and centralisation as opposites in a zero-sum relationship; and attempts to formulate optimum arrangements for all programmes at all times, without regard for variation in values, technologies and geography. Many debates... ignore [that] the advantage to be gained from any shift in central-local relations depends upon its conformance to feasible division of power and practical division of work — practical in terms of both the nature of public programmes and the resources of existing institutions.
Walsh, 1969, p. 179 quoted in Golooba-Mutebi, 1999, chapter 2
Golooba-Mutebi kindly made his dissertation available to this author by electronic files, whose format does not correspond with the printed version. Thus, specifying the pages of quotations is very difficult.
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© 2003 Springer Japan
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Saito, F. (2003). Introduction: Why Decentralization Matters?. In: Decentralization and Development Partnership. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-53955-1_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-53955-1_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Tokyo
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