Is Decentralization Good For Development? Perspectives from Academics and Policy Makers

by Faguet, Jean-Paul; Poschl, Caroline

• ISBN13: 9780198737506
• ISBN10: 0198737505
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2015-10-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Author Biography

Jean-Paul Faguet, Professor of the Political Economy of Development, London School of Economics and Political Science,Caroline Poschl, PhD student, London School of Economics and Political Science

Jean-Paul Faguet is Professor of the Political Economy of Development at the London School of Economics. He is also Chair of the Decentralization Task Force at Columbia University's Initiative for Policy Dialogue. His research blends quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate the institutions and organizational forms that underpin rapid development. He has published extensively in the academic literature, including Governance from Below: Decentralization and Popular Democracy in Bolivia, which won the W.J.M. Mackenzie Prize for best political science book of 2012. His teaching and research focus on comparative political economy, new institutional economics, economic development and economic history.

Caroline Poschl is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of International Development, London School of Economics and Political Science. Her dissertation explores the relationship between taxation and accountability at the local government level in Mexico. Caroline has experience working on decentralisation, subnational management, and taxation at the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank. Her research interests include local governance and decentralisation.

Table of Contents

1. Is Decentralization Good For Development? Perspectives from Academics and Policy Makers, Jean-Paul Faguet and Caroline Poschl
Part I: Decentralization, Stability and the Strengthening of the State
2. Why I Decentralized Bolivia, Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada and Jean-Paul Faguet
3. Breaking the Countercyclical Pattern of Local Democracy in Pakistan, Ali Cheema, Adnan Q. Khan, and Roger Myerson
4. Inclusive Governance for Inclusive Development: The History, Politics and Economics of Panchayat Raj, Mani Shankar Aiyar
5. Is Latin America on the Path to Achieving Sustainable Fiscal Decentralization?, Matteo Grazzi and Fidel Jaramillo
6. Does Decentralization Strengthen or Weaken the State? Authority and Social Learning in a Supple State, Jean-Paul Faguet, Ashley M. Fox, and Caroline Poschl
Part II: Designing Decentralization: Taxes, Transfer, and Expenditures
7. The Fiscal Interest Approach: The Design of Tax and Transfer Systems, Caroline Poschl and Barry R. Weingast
8. Maintaining Taxes at the Centre Despite Decentralization: Interactions with National Reforms, Giorgio Brosio and Juan Pablo Jimenez
9. Political Capture of Decentralization: Vote Buying through Grants to Local Jurisdictions, Stuti Khemani
Part III: Decentralization and Local Service Provision
10. Does yardstick competition influence local government fiscal behaviour in the Philippines?, Joseph J. Capuno, Stella A. Quimbo, Aleli D. Kraft, Carlos Antonio R. Tan, Jr., and Vigile Marie B. Fabella
11. Area-Based Competition and Awards as a Motivation Tool for Public Service Provision: The Experience of Xining, China, Bingqin Li and Yongmei Zhang
12. Empirical Studies of an Approach to Decentralization: 'Decision Space' in Decentralized Health Systems, Thomas J. Bossert
13. Political Participation, Clientelism, and Targeting of Local Government Programs: Results from a Rural Household Survey in West Bengal, India, Pranab Bardhan, Sandip Mitra, Dilip Mookherjee, and Abhirup Sarkar