Development agencies often promote decentralization as a solution for poverty reduction and a means of addressing the unique needs of local populations in developing countries. This manuscript examines the District Assembly system's effectiveness in delivering services within the Bawku Municipality in the Upper East Region of Ghana. The study employs a mixed-methods approach to illuminate two contrasting perspectives on the local assembly's service provision. On one hand, citizens generally express satisfaction with the delivery of services related to health infrastructure, education, electricity, and water supply. On the other hand, a significant portion of the population is dissatisfied with the local assembly's performance in governance, sanitation, gender-related issues, and addressing vulnerability. Notably, the study also uncovers that despite the intended objective of decentralization to empower local citizens, a degree of central government control and influence undermines its effectiveness. This study presents practical and theoretical implications and identifies avenues for future research in this field.
Abstract In this article, we consider how decentralizing health spending to local governments affects health care access and quality. Based on data from forty-nine countries around the world from 1996 to 2015, we find that decentralizing health spending is inimical to timely and effective health care. We also explore the role of two specific channels through which fiscal decentralization can undermine health outcomes: externalities and foregone economies of scale. We find that decentralizing health expenditure to the local level may generate externalities to the detriment of health outcomes when it is accompanied by locally elected municipal politicians who are not subject to national parties. Our results further suggest that fiscal decentralization can improve health access and quality when approximately two-thirds or more of the people in a country live in localities with more than 300,000 inhabitants, implying that below this threshold economies of scale may be foregone.
"This book explores the challenges, opportunities, and trends impacting the working of federations in South Asia and Europe. It deliberates on the changing socio-economic realities, challenges facing the existing structures of governance, degrees of consociationalism, and the growing aspirations of people in South Asia and Europe. Through case studies from Greece, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, France, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Maldives, Bhutan, and India, the volume focuses on critical issues relating to cooperative federalism - its complexities, institutional dilemmas, and trends in South Asia and Europe. It discusses a variety of themes, including federal-state relations; cooperative governance; constitution; multiculturalism, fiscal relations, democratization, devolution of powers, consociationalism, and global citizenship to analyse the complexities of the existing federal polities in South Asia and Europe. It further emphasizes the need to strike a balance between the federal government and the constituent units in these regions. Topical and lucid, this book will be of interest to teachers, scholars, and researchers of political science, comparative government and politics, federalism, South Asian politics, European politics, governance studies, and political studies"--
This study examines the impact of amalgamation reforms on workload and digital governance within Armenian local authorities, against a backdrop of decentralization and government consolidation. It explores how these reforms affect public servants at different governmental levels and ordinary citizens, highlighting the transition towards e-governance as a mitigatory strategy. The research employed a mixed-method approach, incorporating document analysis, semi-structured interviews with government officials across various levels, and focus group discussions with citizens from amalgamated communities. This comprehensive methodology aimed to assess the shifts in workload distribution and the effectiveness of digital governance tools post-amalgamation. Findings indicate a significant shift in work responsibilities towards local administrators, particularly after community amalgamations, leading to increased workloads. While digital governance tools were introduced to alleviate these pressures, their effectiveness varied. Smaller communities reported satisfaction with service delivery improvements, attributing this to enhanced government support and capacity. However, larger communities faced challenges, including dissatisfaction with service delivery, loss of local identity, and perceived inequities in tax contributions versus benefits received. The study reveals that while amalgamation and digital governance initiatives aim to enhance administrative efficiency and public service delivery, they also present complex challenges. These include managing increased workloads and ensuring equitable service provision across communities. The research contributes to the discourse on local governance reform, emphasizing the need for a balanced approach that considers the implications for democracy, accountability, and citizen engagement in the face of significant structural changes.
abstract: Why do national governments choose to transfer some of their administrative, political, and fiscal powers to regional authorities? This article develops and tests a nationally focused strategic account: decentralization is a targeted means to bolster a governing party's national-level electoral strength by appeasing the voters of threatening ethnoterritorial parties in national parliamentary elections. Statistical analyses of decentralization across the subnational regions of Western European countries confirm that governing parties transfer additional competencies to regions in which an ethnoterritorial party threat exists, when the government is legislatively vulnerable. In contrast, if a government is not dependent on a region for maintaining national parliamentary control, the presence of a strong ethnoterritorial opponent will not motivate the government to decentralize. These findings help to explain patterns of asymmetrical decentralization across regions within a country and why governing parties decentralize competencies to subnational governments that they do not expect to control.
This study examines the phenomenon of pseudo-decentralization and financial dependence in the context of regional autonomy implementation in Sumedang Regency, Indonesia. Using a case study approach and analyzing financial data from 2019-2022, this research investigates the extent to which Sumedang Regency relies on central and provincial governments for financial resources. The findings reveal a high level of financial dependence due to limited income sources provided by the central government to regions like Sumedang. Despite this dependency, Sumedang Regency has successfully executed development programs and received awards, partly due to effective political lobbying by regional leaders. However, this reliance on local elites may hinder the achievement of decentralization objectives and lead to unequal development outcomes. As a recommendation, the central government is urged to focus on implementing fiscal policies that distribute more lucrative and equitable financial resources to all regencies and cities, promoting genuine decentralization and fair development.
AbstractA plethora of government‐ and non‐government actors are involved in the labour market integration of highly skilled refugees, forming a complex "system" that is difficult to navigate for integration actors and refugees. Based on interviews with 32 labour market integration actors in Sweden, this article examines multi‐level governance gaps in the wake of the simultaneous centralization and decentralization of labour market preparation services. It examines various "steps" in the labour market integration process to gain a more holistic perspective of "the system", and identifies governance gaps in each step. The article finds that the devolution of services has opened up participatory spaces for non‐government actors, but narrowly defined mandates and short‐term funding mechanisms hamper cooperation within and between territorial levels of policy implementation.
AbstractIn the last few decades, many Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) engaged in processes of decentralization in which responsibilities of the national government are transferred to local government units (LGUs). Yet, it is still unclear under what circumstances LGUs in recently decentralized CEEC can deliver high‐quality public services. We put forward the argument that political, administrative, and financial factors related to characteristics of the LGU, and their implementation structure can explain the quality of public services, understood here as the compliance with standards set at central government level. We deduce a set of hypotheses which we test with the example of the public service of preschool education in Albania using generalized linear mixed‐effects models. We find that albeit fiscal factors are important, the relation between money and high‐quality public services is more complex than previously assumed. We find that private donations can undermine central government standards, and that requirements not involving financial costs are more likely implemented. Further, political, and administrative factors, although previously often neglected, play an important role. We find that outsourcing certain functions leads to higher service quality, and that urban areas provide higher quality services indicating that political actors need to focus on rural areas.
The U.S. federal government often devolves administrative processes and decision making to state and local governments. Prior studies have found that the success of decentralization and implementation depends on several mediating factors at the subnational level, such as a state's political ideology or administrative capacity. This study focuses on one mechanism—the ability of states to leverage their information advantage about the local context vis-à-vis the federal government. We are interested in whether the information advantage of state-level firearm background checks decreased the rates of intimate partner violence (IPV) involving a firearm compared to states that relied on federally administered background checks. We take advantage of data from the period of state-mandated stay-at-home (SAH) orders during the COVID-19 pandemic, a temporal context with increased IPV rates. Using a Poisson fixed effects regression, we find that rates of IPV involving a firearm did not increase when the SAH orders were in effect. However, using decision-relevant information in state-administered background checks decreased the rates of IPV resulting in injury and murder-suicide, compared to states that relied on federal background checks.
The relevance of the study of organizational culture in public authorities in the context of digitalization is to determine the impact of the latest technologies on the cultural aspects of management. The article analyzes the key theoretical approaches to the study of organizational culture, in particular, value, systemic, and interpretive approaches. The evolution of views on the nature and role of organizational culture is considered. The author's vision of the essence of organizational culture as a mechanism for adapting the organization to the external environment and ensuring its internal unity is proposed. The key functions of organizational culture in modern conditions - innovative, communicative and integrative - are analyzed. The influence of such factors as decentralization reform, public control, and digitalization on organizational culture in government bodies is studied. The latter is considered to be one of the most important factors that determines the need to adapt the organizational culture. The author concludes that it is necessary to transform organizational culture in accordance with the needs of digitalization in order to increase the efficiency, openness and accountability of public authorities.
This book brings together leading scholars and practitioners from around the globe to examine the current roles of and future trends in local government structures and mechanisms in 16 different federal and federal-type countries. In doing so, this volume explores pressing topics such as the institutions of local government, constitutional recognition, financial management, intergovernmental relations, political culture, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the role of local government in federal systems. Contributors to this volume provide a timely and comprehensive account of the integral role local governments play in federal countries and offer fascinating perspectives on how these roles may change as individual federal systems evolve. These individual analyses are contextualized in a comparative perspective in order to gain a holistic understanding of the challenges and opportunities of various local government dynamics in different regions around the world. This is an open access book.
AbstractThis comprehensive study of political vigilantism in Ghana examines the motives, membership, and financing of the phenomenon and proffers solutions to combat it. We use a qualitative methodology of personal interviews with a broad section of Ghanaian political stakeholders totaling 50 participants. This included 30 political vigilante members equally affiliated with the New Patriotic Party and the National Democratic Congress and selected from the vigilante hotbeds of the Northern, Upper East, and Ashanti regions of Ghana. The other political stakeholders total 20 and are made up of: five public political party executives, five civil society members, five police officers, and five local district assembly members. The motives include institutional weakness, winning political power, and economic and group solidarity. Membership involves family and friends, former security personnel, party members, and unemployed youth. Financing emanates from political parties, politicians, and the business class. We argue that patron–clientelism is the driving force behind political vigilantism and recommend more legal accountability for patrons, particularly through constitutional amendments guaranteeing a fixed term for the head of the police and separating the roles of Attorney General and Minister of Justice. This is to ensure that the former can impartially prosecute vigilante patrons. Punitive financial measures are also recommended to deter patrons, backed by sustained public education and more employment opportunities for the masses of unemployed youth—the bedrock of political vigilantism.Related ArticlesAkwei, Cynthia, Isaac S. Damoah, and Joseph Amankwah‐Amoah. 2020. "The Effects of Politics on the Implementation of Government Programs/Projects: Insights from a Developing Economy." Politics & Policy 48(6): 1161–201. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12384.Asiegbu, Martin F., Okey Marcellus Ikeanyibe, Pius Otu Abang, Okwudili Chukwuma Nwosu, and Chuka Eugene Ugwu. 2024. "Natural Resource Fund Governance and the Institutionalization of Rent Seeking in Nigeria's Oil Sector." Politics & Policy 52(1): Early View. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12579.Debrah, Emmanuel. 2016. "Decentralization, District Chief Executives, and District Assemblies in Ghana's Fourth Republic." Politics & Policy 44 (1): 135–64. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12146.
In: Asia policy: a peer-reviewed journal devoted to bridging the gap between academic research and policymaking on issues related to the Asia-Pacific, Band 19, Heft 1, S. 113-133
executive summary: This article compares the logistical challenges associated with the West's military resupply of Ukraine and those of resupplying Taiwan in a potential future conflict. main argumentDespite facing critical munitions shortages and growing political divisiveness over the substantial financial burden of this policy, the West's resupply of the Ukrainian military during Ukraine's current war with Russia has—so far—been a success, keeping forces battle-worthy and able to continue fighting after nearly two years of high-intensity conventional warfare. Would the resupply of Taiwan against China in wartime be similarly feasible for the U.S. and its regional partners in the Pacific? Major obstacles distinguish the Taiwan scenario. In prioritizing planning for a Taiwan contingency, the U.S. government should consider five major logistical factors: geopolitical ambiguity, the tyranny of distance, the need to resupply by air and sea, the involvement of reliable regional partners, and China's tolerance for the supply of armament to Taiwan in wartime. policy implications• Pre-positioning war materiel forward on allied soil is crucial to enable a rapid response to any military aggression against Taiwan. Besides increasing stocks of arms and ammunition in Taiwan itself, materiel should be pre-positioned with short reach to Taiwan in Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines and closely linked with depots in Guam, Hawaii, Australia, and the continental U.S. in a hub-and-spoke framework. • To assist Taiwan in establishing reserves of arms and munitions, the U.S. should increase technology transfer and joint production of critical war materiel with and in Taiwan. Boosting Taiwan's own defense industry base will help ensure the security of supply and an independent maintenance, repair, and overhaul capability in a conflict. Moreover, to ensure the materiel survives, hardening, decentralization, and the ability to disperse at least parts of the industrial production and maintenance, repair, and overhaul capability should be advanced. • In a war across the Taiwan Strait, Taiwanese ports and airports would come under attack early on, and even if they were not destroyed, the People's Liberation Army would try to block access to them, hindering resupply efforts. Strong emphasis should be placed on the development of robust amphibious and civilian roll-on/roll-off capabilities, buildup of temporary piers, and improvement of Taiwan's transportation infrastructure.