Government Decentralization Research Articles

The role of agroholdings in inclusive development of united territorial communities and districts: synergetic effect of decentralization

The aim of the article is to substantiate the synergetic relationship between the consequences of decentralization of authorities and governance constituting the formation of united territorial communities (UTCs) and new districts and the role of agricultural holdings in creating an inclusive environment within these socio-spatial formations. The methodological basis of the study consists of systemic, synergetic, geographical, socio-economic approaches, which together form an interdisciplinary research paradigm. The methods of analysis and synthesis, deduction and induction, SWOT-analysis, methods of comparison, statistics, and sociology are used to examine the processes occurring in rural areas as a result of reforming the basic and district levels of the administrative-territorial organization and their transition to the principles of inclusiveness with the active participation of agricultural holdings. The analysis of socio-economic and political processes occurring within the UTCs and districts has contributed to the identification of their orientation in the following directions: forming the rural-urban agglomerations of the convergent-continuum type; revealing the complementary relationship between agricultural, rural, and inclusive development, which forms the preconditions for the creation of welfare inclusion within the specified space; determining the dimensions of inclusive development of UTCs and districts; disclosing the priority role of agricultural holdings as activators of the process of creating inclusion, provided that they increase their social responsibility for the results of their own economic activities and establish a harmonious partnership between government, business, and society. The originality and novelty of the study lie in the use of the synergies effect in the analysis of interconnected phenomena consolidated by a single focus on the formation of the rural and inclusive environment as decent living conditions for local people, socially-oriented business, and the establishment of efficient rural self-government with the participation of large agri-food companies of the holding type. The article substantiates the conditions, directions, and ways to transform the agricultural holdings into activators of inclusive development of UTCs and districts, which can be used in the process of practical activity of local governments and business entities.

Pemekaran Daerah Luwu Raya Sebagai Isu Kampanye Pemilihan Gubernur Sulawesi Selatan

Regional expansion is argued to improve people's welfare, the quality of public services, create good and efficient local government, and build substantive democracy at the local level. Regional expansion must consider aspects of urgency and capacity. The policy process for regional expansion in Indonesia is bottom-up and is dominated by a political process rather than an administrative process. This issue raised in the momentum of the Pilkada, but until the 2018 period it had not yet been realized. This study aims to explain the issue of regional expansion of Luwu Raya during the regional elections for Governor and the Vice Governor of South Sulawesi in 2009, 2013 and 2018 and the obstacles. Data obtained from official government documents and reports. The data presented is the result of the clustering process, descriptive analysis of interview transcripts and processed as research results. The relationship between the elite is the focus of the analysis in this study. Researchers further explore the political dynamics of local elites in the discourse of regional expansion. It examines the issue of regional expansion becomes a political campaign maneuver aims to collect electoral votes. The concept of decentralization does not made the political process of regional expansion easily to realize. The practice of decentralization governance not only changing the implementation of governance in the regional administrative but also the implementation of politics at the local level. Political elites compete for electoral barns as a manifestation of local political practices that coincide with the issue of regional expansion.

Cryptocurrency Constellations Across the Three-Dimensional Space: Governance Decentralization, Security, and Scalability

In the post-Bitcoin era, many cryptocurrencies with a variety of goals and purposes have emerged in the digital arena. This article aims to map cryptocurrency protocols across three main defining dimensions, which are governance decentralization, security, and scalability. We theorize about the organizational and technological features that impact these three dimensions. Such features encompass roles permissiveness, validation network size, resource expenditure, and number of transactions per second. We map the different cryptocurrency constellations based on their consensus mechanisms, discussing the organizational and technological features of the various protocols applications and how they experience and play with the tradeoffs among governance decentralization, security, and scalability.

Interrogating the Centralization-Decentralization Tension in the Philippines in the Midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has managed to expose the longstanding inadequacies and the fragmented states of government and socio-economic institutions worldwide. COVID-19 is an indiscriminating threat. Thus, for both developed and developing countries, the pandemic, and the challenges it surfaced, meant a protracted test of resilience for governments and the existing world order. For the Philippines, the COVID-19 health crisis has managed to exacerbate the deep-rooted societal issues of inequality, corruption, and injustice. Yet, it also seems that the pandemic has somehow managed to trigger both public officials and Filipino citizens to question and to think more deeply about the capabilities and the readiness of a highly centralized bureaucracy to shift to a federal or more decentralized form of government.This unease is heightened even further in the face of the current administration operating within an almost absolutely centralized and uniform policy and governance framework during this pandemic as prescribed by the “Bayanihan to Heal as One Act of 2020.” This law essentially enabled the President to have almost absolute control over all government machinery and more. More importantly though, the handling of the crisis also uncovered signs of disconnect across the different levels of the Philippine government, especially as tensions between local government units and the national government unfold.As such, this paper will attempt to describe these centralization-decentralization tensions and provide an explanation of its sources to understand and assess the current decentralization context of the Philippines using the government’s COVID-19 crisis response as the frame of reference. Overall, using the case of the Philippines, the analysis will explore possible policy recommendations that can assist the government in navigating or finding a balance between the policy intricacies and implications presented by centralization and decentralization in government. More importantly, the analysis also hopes to contribute to the ongoing discourse on decentralization and federalism especially in the case of the Philippines.

Types of decentralisation and governance: Evidence from across the world

The relationship between decentralisation and quality of government is theoretically ambivalent and remains empirically mixed. The classical theory argues that decentralisation improves the ability of governments to fully respond to collective preferences. A different perspective points to some disadvantages related to problems of coordination and inertia. This paper provides a worldwide cross‐sectional analysis that tests these two contrasting views and the effect of democracy. The results robustly support that (a) decentralisation has an independent and positive effect on the quality of government, but that (b) political, fiscal and administrative types of decentralisation have quite different effects and that (c) the effect is attenuated when the effect of democracy is considered. Together, these results shed light with regard to the optimal design of reforms towards decentralisation across the world.

Emerging Issues in Decentralized Resource Governance: Environmental Federalism, Spillovers, and Linked Socio-Ecological Systems

Spillovers among jurisdictions are ubiquitous and likely to increase with increasing population and consumption, so the centralization or decentralization of environmental governance is of pressing concern in a world of tightly linked socio-ecological systems. Spillovers play a key role in federalism analysis because they tend to reduce benefits from decentralization. Laboratory federalism, a common rationale for decentralization, has not proven successful as a model of local policy innovation. Given a national policy toward a public good, differences in preferences across jurisdictions may push national policy toward a quantity instrument rather than a tax instrument. Finally, the lack of interaction between environmental federalism analysis and studies of adaptive governance and linked complex adaptive systems leaves both literatures incomplete. The increasing urgency of global sustainability issues argues for linking insights from environmental federalism with the literature on linked socio-ecological complex adaptive systems.

The Effects Study of Government Decentralization, Informal Economy on Carbon Emissions

The Effects Study of Government Decentralization, Informal Economy on Carbon Emissions

Regional competition, environmental decentralization, and target selection of local governments

Promoting environmental management system reform in an orderly manner and coordinating central and local environmental protection responsibilities are important for high-quality economic development. Based on panel data of 289 cities in China from 2008 to 2016, this paper uses the fixed effects model and threshold regression model to discuss the relationships among regional competition, environmental decentralization, and target selection of local governments and to analyze whether environmental decentralization produces the Porter effect. Findings show that environmental decentralization does significantly promote economic development, strengthen environmental pollution control, and generate a strong Porter effect, due to greater R&D investment, improvement in green technology innovation ability, and optimization of the industrial structure. The effect of environmental decentralization shows significant regional heterogeneity in terms of regional financial pressure, economic development level, and environmental pressure, while regional competition distorts the effect of environmental decentralization. With the intensification of regional competition, environmental decentralization greatly improves the emission intensity of pollutants, whereas it promotes economic development after inhibiting it. The above conclusions are of great significance for pushing forward environmental decentralization, formulating a differentiated environmental decentralization strategy, and perfecting the government performance appraisal system.

Decentralisation and fiscal performance in Central and Eastern Europe

ABSTRACT This paper provides empirical evidence on the association between decentralisation and budget deficits of the general government for a panel of 11 former transition countries during 1991–2018, controlling for the effects of various demographic, institutional, and macroeconomic variables. We provide evidence that decentralising government activities in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has favourable effects on the fiscal position of general government. Also, we show that the greater reliance on intergovernmental grants as a source of finance of local governments does not have detrimental effects on the overall fiscal discipline. Therefore, we cannot support the so-called ‘common pool’ hypothesis, which predicts that intergovernmental transfers lead to higher public expenditure, thus exacerbating the fiscal imbalances of the general government. On the other hand, we show that the effects of revenue decentralisation depend critically on the specific measure of local government revenue.

Branding of Cultural Tourism Objects of the United Territorial Communities of the Southern Megaregion of Ukraine

AbstractThe process of decentralization of power and governance, which takes place in Ukraine through the voluntary unification of territorial communities, has laid the foundations for reforming the administrative territorial structure and territorial organization of power. Taking into account the state making nature of these transformations in the context of Ukraine’s European integration efforts, the article substantiates theoretical and applied fundamentals of branding of cultural tourism objects of the united territorial communities (UTC), reveals his role in constructing local identity of these social and spatial formations. The methodology of the study covers three main thematic blocks: legal and political foundations of the creation of a UTC; features of UTC branding; conceptualization and classification of brand projects of cultural tourism objects of the UTC. The factors that inhibit the branding process of cultural tourism objects of these communities were identified, conclusions were drawn, and perspective directions for further scientific exploration were outlined.

IT architecture flexibility and IT governance decentralisation as drivers of IT-enabled dynamic capabilities and competitive performance: The moderating effect of the external environment

ABSTRACT A question of central importance for researchers and practitioners is how information technology (IT) can help firms survive and thrive in turbulent and constantly changing business environments. To address this issue, this study develops the idea that IT architecture flexibility helps sustain competitive performance by driving the formation of IT-enabled dynamic capabilities, and that IT governance decentralisation strengthens this relationship. IT architecture flexibility and IT governance decentralisation, therefore, develop complementary effects. We argue that IT-enabled dynamic capabilities are a core antecedent for competitive performance gains, particularly under uncertain external environmental conditions. Tests of the proposed model using survey data from 322 international firms support these ideas. Our research also shows that, under conditions of high environmental heterogeneity, the value of IT architecture flexibility and IT governance decentralisation is increased, while the impact of IT-enabled dynamic capabilities on competitive performance is amplified.

Aspectos relevantes de la convergencia a NIC-SP en los bienes patrimoniales del sector público no financiero

Las Normas Internacionales de Contabilidad enfocadas al sector público (NICSP) emitidas por el Consejo de Normas Internacionales (IPSASB), constituyen estándares altos en la gestión de información financiera-contable. En la actualidad varios países del mundo han adoptado estos estándares, como es el caso de Ecuador. El presente estudio fue desarrollado en el Gobierno Autónomo Descentralizado Municipal de Azogues (GADMA), frente a la necesidad de reconocer y registrar los bienes patrimoniales en los estados financieros; el objetivo de la investigación consiste en plantear un proceso para la implementación de la NIC-SP 17 para el reconocimiento de los bienes patrimoniales. La metodología empleada en esta investigación fue de tipo no experimental y transversal, pues las variables se analizaron en su estado natural y en un solo momento del tiempo. En el diagnóstico se determinó la inexistencia de una norma específica que controle los bienes patrimoniales, su inventario fue levantado por última vez hace más de diez años por el Instituto Nacional Patrimonio y Cultural (INPC) y no por el GADMA, la gran mayoría de estos bienes no se encuentran bajo el dominio de la institución. Se concluye que con la implementación de la NIC-SP 17 se obtendrá información confiable para el reconocimiento de los activos de la Municipalidad los mismos que deberán ser registrados en la cuenta de Bienes de Patrimonio Nacional Histórico Artístico y/o Cultural como es el caso del cementerio Municipal, el Museo Rodrigo Pesántez y la Quinta San José; con ello la entidad presentará estados financieros razonables.

Transformation of local self-government in context decentralization of public power in unitary Ukraine

The process of transformation of local self-government is connected with solving a complex of problems of its provision. Among them, the constitutional and legal problems of territorial governance, which are the subject of this study, play a significant role. In Ukraine, a course of improvement of Ukrainian unitarism was chosen through widespread decentralization of public power, formation of capable, effective local government on this basis as active interaction and cooperation of subjects, local self-government institutions, executive power, civil society, business environment. This approach actualizes the constitutional and legal discourse of decentralization. The article discusses the issues of constitutional and legislative support for the reform of the territorial organization of power. A constitutional and legal understanding of the decentralization of public power in the context of the provisions of the current Basic Law is given. Modern approaches to amending the Constitution of Ukraine in terms of decentralization of public power, reforming local self-government, and territorial administration are critically analyzed. The novelties of legislative developments concerning territorial governance are considered. The urgency of sectoral decentralization in areas such as local finance, education, health care, social protection, housing and communal services, administrative services, communal land and property, sustainable economic development, human resources, etc. is emphasized. It is noted that, given the principles of constitutionalism, the existing potential of the Constitution should be exploited, the shortcomings of permanent, point-to-point modification overcome, the careful and careful approach to regional level of territorial governance. It is emphasized that the transformation of local self-government in the context of decentralization of public power must be carried out in a comprehensive and systematic manner, taking into account the preservation and strengthening of the unitary nature of Ukraine. Keywords: transformation of local self-government, decentralization of public power, territorial governance, constitutional and legal support of reform, unitary principles of Ukraine.

School Governance and Student Achievement: Cross-National Evidence From the 2015 PISA

Although cross-national evidence suggests that decentralization of educational governance is positively related to student achievement, related research often fails to recognize the separate roles and influences of governments, school boards, principals, and teachers. We use data from the 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment to examine school leaders’ perceptions of governance arrangements across 68 countries and to assess whether differences in perceived governance patterns are significantly related to differences in student achievement. We find that although school governance arrangements vary substantially across countries, increases in teacher decision-making responsibilities are consistently and positively related to student achievement in math, reading, and science, all else equal. Furthermore, controlling for school principals’ leadership style does not fundamentally change the positive and significant relationships between teacher decision making and student achievement, suggesting that the impact of teachers may be independent of school principals’ attitudes and actions.

Theoretical aspects of formation and development of amalgamated territorial communities in Ukraine under the conditions of decentralization of state power

Problem setting. Ukraine has set a strategic course for integration into the European Union. This issue is actualized in the context of the implementation of the governmental decentralization reform, aimed at forming an effective local self-government and territorial organization of the government in order to create and maintain a full-fledged living environment for citizens, to provide high-quality and affordable public services, to establish institutions of direct democracy, to coordinate the interests of the state and territorial communities.Analysis of recent research and publications. The works of many leading scientists are devoted to the development of local self-government in Ukraine. In particular, theoretical and organizational and legal aspects of the formation of territorial communities were considered in the scientific papers of O. Batanov, I. Butko, V. Bordeniuk, I. Drobot, V. Kampo, I. Myshchak, V. Pogorilko. The study of foreign experience of local self-government and the problem of adaptation of Ukrainian legislation to the European one were covered in the research papers of M. Baimuratov, I. Hrytsiak, I. Koziura, O. Trush. Problematics of formation of self-sufficient territorial communities and their resource support were considered in the papers of A. Hoshko, Yu. Kuts, V. Mamonova and other scientists. The formation of communities under the conditions of administrative-territorial reform was covered in the research papers of V. Kuybida, M. Pittsyk, M. Pukhtynskyi and many other leading Ukrainian scientists. The analysis of scientific sources proves the relevance and importance of the problem, that is why the subject of the study of theoretical foundations of the formation and development of territorial communities in Ukraine under the conditions of decentralization of the state power requires coverage and attracting the attention of the scientific community.Highlighting previously unsettled parts of the general problem. Based on the analysis of scientific sources to determine the main stages of the formation of legal foundations for the formation and development of amalgamated territorial communities in Ukraine under the conditions of decentralization of state power.Paper main body. Decentralization of state power under the conditions of modern state-building in Ukraine is the basis for the formation of a new system of governing the country – public administration, and its subjects include the state, the territorial community and civil society. European integration vector of Ukraine's development stipulates further implementation of reforms of decentralization of state power on the basis of openness, transparency, and democracy.Conclusions of the research and prospects for further studies. The analysis of scientific sources on the issues of decentralization of state power and the formation of territorial communities proves the relevance and importance of the topic of developing theoretical foundations for the formation and development of amalgamated territorial communities in Ukraine under conditions of decentralization of state power.Studying the works of scientists proves the existence of different points of view on the essence of the concept of territorial community, but despite the diversity of interpretations of the concept of community by scientists, there are common views on the presence of residents who reside on a certain territory and are united by common values and interests.There are five main stages of establishing of the legal basis for the formation and development of territorial communities in Ukraine under the conditions of decentralization of state power: the first stage (1990 – 1996) – overcoming the Soviet legacy of governing and instituting democratic decentralization; the second stage (1996 – 1999) – creation of a legal basis for decentralization of power; the third stage (1999 – 2014) – formation of preconditions for resource (including financial) provision of capacity of territorial communities; the fourth stage (from 2014 – 2019) – formation of prerequisites for the formation of amalgamated territorial communities and unions of territorial communities; the fifth stage (from 2019 to the present) is the continuation of the policy of creation of amalgamated territorial communities, formation of legal bases for transferring resources, powers and responsibility for their implementation.

The relationship between fiscal decentralization and trust in government: evidence from the South Korean case

To date, many developing countries have continued to implement fiscally decentralized governance systems to respond to the diversified needs of local residents more effectively and to better act in line with the public interest. However, little is known about the fiscal decentralization–trust link. Focusing empirically on the South Korean case, this study examines how financially decentralized governance might increase government trustworthiness not just at the national level, but also at the local level. The results of multilevel regression and panel data analyses partly confirm the results of pro-fiscal decentralization studies in that the growth of local fiscal autonomy is positively and significantly related to public trust in government. Specifically, we find that as fiscal decentralization improves, levels of trust in local government also rise. In addition, our findings show that in terms of having higher levels of public trust in government, the impact of revenue decentralization tends to be greater than that of expenditure decentralization. This evidence implies that allowing local governments to have their own revenue sources rather than expenditure autonomy can be a way to better respond to people’s needs in the long run.Points for practitionersFirst, as fiscal decentralization improves, levels of trust in local government also rise. Second, allowing local governments to have their own revenue sources rather than expenditure autonomy can be a way to better respond to people’s needs in the long run. Third, government policies should aim to provide benefits to citizens for their own sake, such as by exercising effective delivery or improving the quality of public services and programs that are likely to be viewed positively by constituents. This could encourage citizens to engage with the current public-sector spheres in ways that affect their confidence and expectations of government policies and bureaucrats in a positive manner.

Decentralisation, entrepreneurialism and democratization processes in urban governance in Tamale, Ghana

ABSTRACT A concept of urban governance involving decentralization, entrepreneurialism and democracy (DED), and designed to promote sustainable and inclusive urban development, is proposed as an instrument of participatory, multi-stakeholder engagements and relationships, on the one hand, and the alignment of policy with gaps that emerge from practice, on the other. This concept is used to assess urban governance practices in Tamale, Ghana. The study identified substantial policy–practice gaps, especially with respect to the application of decentralization and democratic governance principles, although entrepreneurism made clear contributions to the development in particular of informal sectors that dominate the city’s economy.

Government Decentralization Under Changing State Capacity: Experimental Evidence from Paraguay

Standard models of hierarchy assume that agents and middle managers are better informed than principals about how to implement a particular task. We estimate the value of the informational advantage held by supervisors – middle managers – when ministerial leadership – the principal – introduced a new monitoring technology aimed at improving the performance of agricultural extension agents (AEAs) in rural Paraguay. Our approach employs a novel experimental design that elicited treatment-priority rankings from supervisors before randomization of treatment. We find that supervisors did have valuable information – they prioritized AEAs who would be more responsive to the monitoring treatment. We develop a model of monitoring under different allocation rules and roll-out scales (i.e., the share of AEAs to receive treatment). We semi-parametrically estimate marginal treatment effects (MTEs) to demonstrate that the value of information and the benefits to decentralizing treatment decisions depend crucially on the sophistication of the principal and on the scale of roll-out.

Less democracy, more centralism: the selection of Candidates by Golkar and PDIP in Indonesian subnational executive elections, 2005–2020

ABSTRACT One of the largest democracies in the world, Indonesia holds elections from the national to the subnational levels. This process inexorably involves hundreds of candidate nominations, with most candidate selections being made by parties. This article investigates how Indonesian parties selected their candidates for subnational executive elections (Pilkada) between 2005 and 2020. Analyzing the formal procedures and practices through which two major Indonesian political parties, the Indonesian Democratic Party—Struggle (PDIP) and Functional Groups Party (Golkar), selected their candidates in subnational elections, this article finds that the process tends to be less democratic but more centralistic. It further argues that intra-party politics within these two parties generated distinct patterns in these parties’ candidate selection processes. This article concludes that there exists a paradox, in which parties select candidates through centralized processes while simultaneously demanding governmental decentralization.

Land, development and the political class: In a translocal ‘Londoni’ village

This article expands Akhil Gupta’s (1995, American Ethnologist, 22(2), 375–402) thesis of ‘blurred boundaries’ between ‘the state’ and ‘society’ in South Asia to incorporate the impact of historic labour migrations, which complicate established conceptions of the state in Bangladesh. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in an area of high migration to the UK, the article draws attention to a class of transnational politicians, and their intra-class conflicts of interest, in shaping local-level politics. The article supports Faguet’s (2017, Modern Asian Studies 51(6), 1668–94) contention that the decentralisation of local government has led to the emergence of vernacularised political economies that operate in the shadow of the state, which are also intrinsically facilitated by it. It suggests that state actors appropriate symbols, offices and resources, together with traditional authority and kinship dynamics, to create an idiosyncratic polity. Aspiration towards power that might lead to the occupation of state offices are determined by either the aspirant’s status as a British citizen (Londoni) or through intimate social and economic connections to Britain through kinship (gushti) networks. The article thus makes a broader contribution to the existing literature on the anthropology of the state, transnational politics and the nexus of power, money and migration in postcolonial contexts.