Decentralization and Local Governance in Developing Countries A Comparative Perspective

by Bardhan, Pranab; Mookherjee, Dilip

• ISBN13: 9780262524544
• ISBN10: 0262524546
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-06-16
• Publisher: The MIT Press

Summary

Over the past three decades the developing world has seen increasing devolution of political and economic power to local governments. Decentralization is considered an important element of participatory democracy and, along with privatization and deregulation, represents a substantial reduction in the authority of national governments over economic policy. The contributors to Decentralization and Local Governance in Developing Countriesexamine this institutional transformation from comparative and interdisciplinary perspectives, offering detailed case studies of decentralization in eight countries: Bolivia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, South Africa, and Uganda. Some of these countries witnessed an unprecedented "big bang" shift toward comprehensive political and economic decentralization: Bolivia in 1995 and Indonesia after the fall of Suharto in 1998. Brazil and India decentralized in an uneven and more gradual manner. In some other countries (such as Pakistan) devolution represented an instrument for consolidation of power of a nondemocratic national government. In China local governments were granted much economic but little political power. South Africa made the transition from the undemocratic decentralization of apartheid to decentralization under a democratic constitution. The studies provide a comparative perspective on the political and economic context within which decentralization took place, and how this shaped its design and possible impact. Contributors: Omar Azfar, Gianpaolo Baiocchi, Pranab Bardhan, Shubham Chaudhuri, Ali Cheema, Jean-Paul Faguet, Bert Hofman, Kai Kaiser, Philip E. Keefer, Asim Ijaz Khwaja, Justin Yifu Lin, Mingxing Liu, Jeffrey Livingston, Patrick Meagher, Dilip Mookherjee, Ambar Narayan, Adnan Qadir, Ran Tao, Tara Vishwanath, Martin Wittenberg

Author Biography

Pranab Bardhan is Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of Scarcity, Conflicts, and Cooperation (MIT Press, 2004) and coeditor (with Christopher Udry) of Readings in Development Microeconomics, Volumes I and II (MIT Press, 2000).

Dilip Mookherjee is Professor of Economics at Boston University. He is the author most recently of The Crisis in Government Accountability: Governance Reforms and Indian Economic Performance.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
The Rise of Local Governments: An Overview	1	(52)
Pranab Bardhan
Dilip Mookherjee
Inequality and Innovation: Decentralization as an Opportunity Structure in Brazil	53	(28)
Gianpaolo Baiocchi
Decentralization, Democratic Transition, and Local Governance in Indonesia	81	(44)
Bert Hofman
Kai Kaiser
Decentralizing Bolivia: Local Government in the Jungle	125	(28)
Jean-Paul Faguet
What Difference Does a Constitutional Amendment Make? The 1994 Panchayati Raj Act and the Attempt to Revitalize Rural Local Government in India	153	(50)
Shubham Chaudhuri
Decentralization in West Bengal: Origins, Functioning, and Impact	203	(20)
Pranab Bardhan
Dilip Mookherjee
Decentralization in Uganda	223	(34)
Omar Azfar
Jeffrey Livingston
Patrick Meagher
Local Government Reform in Pakistan: Context, Content, and Causes	257	(28)
Ali Cheema
Asim Ijaz Khwaja
Adnan Qadir
Decentralization in Pakistan: Are Local Governments Likely to Be More Accountable Than Central Government?	285	(20)
Philip E. Keefer
Ambar Narayan
Tara Vishwanath
Decentralization and Local Governance in China's Economic Transition	305	(24)
Justin Yifu Lin
Ran Tao
Mingxing Liu
Decentralization in South Africa	329	(28)
Martin Wittenberg
List of Contributors	357	(2)
Index	359