Christopher J. Rees - Public Sector Reform in Developing and Transitional Countries: Decentralisation and Local Governance

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Public Sector Reform in Developing and Transitional Countries: Decentralisation and Local Governance

Over recent decades, decentralization has emerged as a key Public Sector Reform strategy in a wide variety of international contexts. Yet, despite its emergence as a ubiquitous activity that cuts across disciplinary lines in international development, decentralization is understood and applied in many different ways by parties acting from contrary perspectives.

This book offers a fascinating insight into theory and practice surrounding decentralization activities in the Public Sectors of developing and transitional countries. In drawing on the expertise of established scholars, the book explores the contexts, achievements, progress and challenges of decentralization and local governance. Notably, the contributions contained in this book are genuinely international in nature; the chapters explore aspects of decentralization and local governance in contexts as diverse as Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Tanzania, Uganda, and Vietnam. In summary, by examining the subject of decentralization with reference to specific developing and transitional Public Sector contexts in which it has been practiced, this book offers an excellent contribution towards a better understanding of the theory and practice of decentralization and local governance in international settings.

This book was published as a special double issue of the International Journal of Public Administration .

Christopher J. Rees is a Senior Lecturer in Organisational Change and Development at the Institute for Development Policy and Management, University of Manchester, UK, where he co-directs the Centre for Organisations in Development.

Farhad Hossain is a Lecturer in Development Management at the Institute for Development Policy and Management, University of Manchester, UK, where he coordinates the PhD Programme in Development Policy and Management.

Public Sector Reform in Developing and Transitional Countries: Decentralisation and Local Governance

Edited by
Christopher J. Rees and Farhad Hossain

First published 2013

by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2013 Taylor & Francis

This book is reproduction of the International Journal of Public Administration , vol. 33, issues 12-13. The Publisher requests to those authors who may be citing this book to state, also, the bibliographical details of the special issue on which the book was based.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 13: 978-0-415-62344-5

Typeset in Times New Roman
by Taylor & Francis Books

Publishers Note

The publisher would like to make readers aware that the chapters in this book may be referred to as articles as they are identical to the articles published in the special issue. The publisher accepts responsibility for any inconsistencies that may have arisen in the course of preparing this volume for print.

Contents

Christopher J. Rees and Farhad Hossain

Donald J. Calista, James Melitski, Marc Holzer and Aroon Manoharan

Jorge Martinez- Vazquez and Andrey Timofeev

Nicholas Awortwi

Antwi Kwabena Barima and Analoui Farhad

Blane D. Lewis

Shahjahan H. Bhuiyan

M. Shamsul Haque

Ambrose T. Kessy and Willy McCourt

Phuong Nguyen-Hoang and Larry Schroeder

Lina Vyas and Sabrina Luk

William Pallangyo and Christopher J. Rees

Sylvia I. Bergh

Anurag Priyadarshee and Farhad Hossain

Joop de Wit

Christopher J. Rees and Farhad Hossain
Institute for Development Policy and Management, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom

The main aim of the article is to examine the emergence of decentralization as a strategy associated with Public Sector Reform in developing and transitional countries. In offering this discussion, the article introduces the focus of this special edition. In the article, we discuss issues such as the political underpinnings of decentralization, the influence of the private sector on decentralization in the public sector, and challenges which have emerged as a result of the implementation of decentralization initiatives in developing and transitional countries. The later sections of the article provide an overview of the articles that comprise this special edition.

Introduction

This special double issue on decentralization and local governance in developing and transitional countries is intended to explore further the contexts, achievements, progress and challenges of local governance and decentralization activities in various developing and transitional countries. The main aim of this article is to introduce the subject of the special issue. In the article, we examine the emergence of decentralization as a strategy associated with Public Sector Reform in developing and transitional countries, acknowledge and consider the influence of the private sector on decentralization in the public sector, identify various types of decentralization, and discuss various challenges which have emerged as a result of the implementation of decentralization initiatives in the public sectors of developing and transitional countries. The later sections of the article provide an overview of the articles that comprise this special edition.

The Emergence of Decentralization

Decentralization has become a byword associated with Public Sector Reform in developing and transitional countries. In the field of international development decentralization is discussed in relation to a wide array of subjects such as democracy, political reform, participation, empowerment, rural development, fiscal and economic development, accountability, and capacity building (Smoke, 2003). Yet despite its emergence as an ubiquitous term that cuts across disciplinary lines in international development, the nature, practice, and benefits of decentralization remain unclear. What has become apparent over the last three or four decades is that decentralization is more than a temporary and theory-driven faux developed by development theorists to promote academically oriented research agendas. In the field of international development, decentralization, however loosely defined, has been with us for at least 40 years and interest in it shows no sign of waning in the near future.

In the early days of decentralization, a number of writers anticipated that problems would emerge as decentralization took hold in public sector organizations. For example, at a methodological level, Fesler (1965: 537) identified a set of three linguistic, mensural, and differential deficiencies which, he argued, would hinder researchers' efforts to advance discussions of decentralization from the general to the precise. First, Felser identifies the tendency to dichotomize the terms centralization and decentralization rather than to acknowledge that the two terms represent the extreme points of a continuum. Second, he draws attention to the weakness of indices of centralization and decentralization. This mensural weakness is particularly pertinent to those wishing to undertake comparative and longitudinal studies of decentralization.

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