Decentralisation in Practice

The Forum of Federations, based in Ottawa, Canada has released a new Occasional Paper written by staff of UTS:CLG entitled Decentralisation and Subsidiarity: Concepts and frameworks for emerging economies. 

 

The paper acknowledges a global trend towards decentralisation particularly in emerging and 'transitional' economies, arguing that an enhanced understanding of the historical, theoretical and practical aspects of decentralisation can contribute to improved practice during decentralisation reforms.

 

The research will of value to policy makers, public administrators, academics and students in Australia interested debates around the federation, multi-level governance, democratic practice and the relationships between federal, state and local governments. The synthesis-framework will be useful for discussions about public sector reform, local government boundary changes, regionalisation and the governance of capital cities, regional centres and rural-remote local government.

 

The paper was co-authored by UTS:CLG Director Associate Professor Roberta Ryan and Ronald Woods, Research Officer.

 

 

 

 

Ronald Woods, Research Officer: Ronald.Woods@uts.edu.au | 02 9514 1112

 

 

Decentralisation and Subsidiarity: Concepts and frameworks for emerging economies acknowledges a global trend towards decentralisation particularly in emerging and 'transitional' economies. The paper argues that an enhanced understanding of the historical, theoretical and practical aspects of decentralisation can contribute to improved practice during decentralisation reforms. The literature in the research is used as a basis to investigate the empirical basis for the theory of fiscal federalism and the decentralisation it promotes. Developments over recent decades in Indonesia and Pakistan are briefly described for illustrative purposes. The paper highlights the 'promise' of decentralisation and its often unintended negative consequences. Ultimately, the authors support the view that there is value in moving beyond a 'centralisation-decentralisation' opposition, and to consider decentralisation as a global trend and what kind of decentralisation is most appropriate for a given country, maximising therefore the benefits of public sector reforms for citizens of countries with multi-level governments.

 

To this purpose - and based on a synthesis of debates that have been occurring over many decades - a framework is put forward in the paper for the benefit of policy makers and public administrators engaged in decentralisation reforms. The framework focuses on: appreciating the theoretical scope of fiscal decentralisation; focusing on the country and its goals; considering the design of a system of multi-level governance; the extent of central and local capacity, and; in the process of decentralisation, adopting flexibility supported by feedback mechanisms.

 

The Forum of Federations is a global network on federalism and multi-level governance that supports better governance through learning among practitioners and experts: www.forumfed.org

 

The Centre for Local Government based at the University of Technology Sydney is the leading university-based centre in Australia for local governance research, teaching and specialist national and international consulting services.