Bulletin n. 3/2006
December 2006
CONTENTS
  • Section A) The theory and practise of the federal states and multi-level systems of government
  • Section B) Global governance and international organizations
  • Section C) Regional integration processes
  • Section D) Federalism as a political idea
  • Manor J.
    Renewing the Debate on Decentralisation
    in Commonwealth and Comparative Politics , Vol. 44 n. 3 ,  2006 ,  283 - 288
    There is an extensive literature on decentralisation, but most studies focus on one (or only a few) of the many cases that have emerged in recent years. The three papers which follow offer a welcome corrective by considering substantial numbers of countries, and by identifying priorities for future research. Treisman asks why governments do (or do not) pursue fiscal decentralisation and reaches conclusions that are both fresh and controversial. O'Dwyer and Ziblatt assess the impact of decentralisation on government effectiveness and efficiency. Their definitions and tools differ from those used by others, so their findings supplement but sit uneasily alongside other analyses. Schneider's complex paper considers the impact of various types of decentralisation on social policies. It will ignite controversy on several fronts – not least because it finds that deconcentration has the most positive impact, while others regard deconcentration on its own as a form of centralisation. The debates that these papers will fuel are badly needed, but contending analysts must find ways of countering the tendency to talk past one another.
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