Institutional Decentralization Research Articles

Resource Mobilization, Social Capital, Religion, and Protest across Latin America

What factors predispose an individual to engage in protest? Previous studies argue pre‐existing social institutions provide the social capital and resource mobilization that facilitate collective action and protest movements, but less work has examined how this social capital and resource capacity develops. Utilizing more than 200,000 individuals surveyed across eighteen Latin American countries from the years 2002 through 2018, this study finds institutional decentralization by the Catholic Church is positively associated with individual propensities to engage in protest. Catholic decentralization is theorized to overcome free rider problems and enable the development of grassroots social capital and resources that empower collective action.

Criminal governance and public resources: The case of paramilitaries and health care provision in Colombia

Non-state armed actors can shape provision of public goods by impeding provision, becoming providers themselves, or taking control of the means for provision. While the literature is prolific at analyzing the former two channels, the third one is underexplored. How does criminal governance affect public goods provisioning via state capture? And do these dynamics facilitate the survival of non-state armed groups? This paper seeks to answer these questions. I argue that institutional cooptation by non-state armed actors (NSAs) affects public goods provisioning negatively in contexts of institutional decentralization. In these circumstances, public resource transfers can strengthen rather than weaken NSAs. To test my argument, I analyze the Colombian case, where criminal insurgencies took control of and diverted public health funds toward their pockets. Using data on health care providers, as well as the presence of NSAs at the municipal level, I show via two-way fixed effects models that municipalities experiencing paramilitary cooptation see a decrease in public health care provision. Similarly, public resource transfers decrease paramilitary demobilizations. This has important implications for the evaluation of decentralization as a strategy for political stabilization, peacekeeping, and development in fragile contexts, as well as for understanding the impact of public spending in strengthening rather than weakening NSAs.

Uloga države u posebnim okolnostima

The role of state administration and its public institutions in certain circumstances represents one of the most significant issues in the last twenty years following the serious security crisis caused by terrorist attacks in New York on 11 September 2001. The accent of public administration reforms was on efficiency and effectiveness of public institutions. Reforms were divided into deregulation and liberalization of public services, territorial decentralization, and regionalization with the strengthening of local government institutions and reform of central government administration. After the security crisis in 2001, financial crisis in 2008 and health crisis in 2020, the role of state institutions and public authorities in governing the state was redefined. The leading motives of general liberalization of public services, deregulation, and various forms of decentralization of public institutions abounded due to the new doctrinal approach of governmental organization. New strengthening of public authorities and public institutions became the new mainstream in the organization and functioning of the state. This paper analyzes how the role of the state can be modified due to the dynamics of social, political, and economic changes in society. New governmental reforms are contrary to earlier political and administrative measures, which include the strengthening of public institutions and concentration of public authorities. The government takes on a regulatory function in many aspects of social, political, and economic life. This situation leads to a new organization of the state, where public authorities take on a significant part of the responsibility to regulate various aspects of economic and social activities. At the focus of this paper will be how the dynamics of specific circumstances in society can affect the developing processes of the state and their public institutions. Those processes have economic, social, and political dimensions. The economic dimension includes regulatory measures on the market which contributes to development of the framework for economic development. The social dimension includes measures of social policy focused on improving the social position of citizens according to the economic development of society. The political dimension includes various aspects of security policy, with various protective measures in the community, which depends on the type of treatment for security of citizens.

КОНЦЕПЦИЯ ИНСТИТУЦИОНАЛЬНЫХ ПРЕОБРАЗОВАНИЙ ЛЕСНОГО КОМПЛЕКСА РОССИИ НА ОСНОВЕ ПРЕДПОЧТЕНИЙ ЭНДОГЕННЫХ АГЕНТОВ

The article proposes the concept of institutional transformations in the direction of expanding endogenous distribution, taking into account the stated preferences of agents of the forest complex. The steps of deregulation and decentralization of formal institutions, transition to differentiated subsidization of forestry activities, introduction of the concept of inseparable improvements, optimization of the taxation function based on expert committees and improvement of endogenous contractual relations of the Russian forestry complex have been developed.

"Public Administration Reform in Romania: Assessing the Past and Looking Into the Future"

"This article provides an account of the transformational capacity of Romanian public administration in relation to four main aspects: (1) human resource performance and integrity; (2) territorial, functional and institutional decentralization; (3) public policies and (4) capitalizing on the digital and innovative component. The Romania case study highlights the gradual transformation of public administration in the last 30 years, as a reaction to the emergence of economic, social and political crises. For an imperative and irreversible change, we have identified directions for capitalizing on opportunities and good practices in the matter, in the context of the intensified integration process in NATO and the EU. We have analyzed the strategic documents on strengthening and accelerating the transformation of public administration and highlighted the need for the interconnection and interdependence of its four pillars to meet the specific objectives of Horizon 2030. For decision-makers, practitioners and researchers, this article aims to stimulate and contribute to the dedicated public debate and consultation of coherent, predictable and sustainable legislation and practices in the matter."

Dynamics of internal migration in Bangladesh: Trends, patterns, determinants, and causes.

IntroductionInternal migration is essential to understand the population dynamics and the multifaceted relationship between population and development of a nation. In Bangladesh, the study of international migration is more frequent due to its socioeconomic importance and data availability. However, the study of internal migration is less frequent as there lie complexities in measuring internal migration, and data are less available. Thus, this paper aimed to explore the dynamics of internal in Bangladesh.Data and methodsWe utilized data from the Bangladesh Population and Housing Census 1991–2011. The number of internal migrants was estimated using the United Nations Manual on Methods of Measuring Internal Migration- Manual VI. District-wise lifetime and net internal migration rate were the dependent variables where several socioeconomic variables were used as independent variables. The correlation and the stepwise multiple linear regression analysis were employed.ResultsDhaka, Gazipur, Narayanganj, and all the Divisional cities have the highest in-migration rate, whereas the northern and southern districts of Bangladesh have the highest out-migration rate. The regression model showed that activity rate appeared to be the strongest predictor (β = 0.419, P<0.001) of net migration for 2011, followed by city corporation (β = 0.275, P<0.01) and poverty rate (β = -0.246, P<0.01). However, the lifetime internal migration rate was 9.8% in 2011. The pooled model (1991–2011) for lifetime internal migration showed that activity rate (β = 0.408, P<0.001), population density (β = 0.386, P<0.001), literacy rate (β = 0.341, P<0.001), and city corporation (β = 0.139, P<0.01) were the significant factors of internal migration. Marriage, looking for a job, employment/business, education, and natural calamities were the reasons for internal migration.Discussion and conclusionThe destinations of migrants are few developed and urbanized cities which needs particular attention in policy planning. If the current migration trends continue, few cities will have an excessive population, which will increase density and pollution, thereby decreasing living standards. Thus, along with comprehensive urban planning, decentralization of government and private institutions must be ensured. Since the rural to urban migration rate is high, the findings recommend more development and concentration in the rural area. Finally, education, training, and work opportunities for migrants should be safeguarded in the area of origin.

American Federalism, Political Inequality, and Democratic Erosion

The United States has a particularly decentralized form of federalism that provides important authority to multiple levels of government. This decentralization is typically seen as beneficial for democratic politics. But while federalism both constrains and enables democratic participation, we argue that it does so unevenly, and in ways that deepen inequalities in the processes of democracy. We propose four mechanisms by which the institutional decentralization of American federalism obstructs or reduces democratic accountability and equality: (1) inequality in venue selection, (2) information asymmetry, (3) an unequal exit threat, and (4) decentralized accountability. In contemporary American politics, these mechanisms both create and expand advantages for economic and political elites, while generating and deepening barriers to the full and equitable inclusion of less powerful groups in society, especially economically and racially marginalized Americans.

La desigualdad estructural de la inversión educativa por alumno en Argentina entre 1991-2019

Basic education in Argentina is organized under a federal and decentralized scheme. The concern for equity and redistributive justice in educational financing under this scheme presents particularities and complexities that need to be understood in order to address the inequality around educational investment. The decentralization of educational institutions to subnational jurisdictions generated two institutionalized effects. The structural inequality of educational investment per student under state management at the subnational level and, at the same time, it has been almost three decades that the national state has not directly managed the Educative offer. From the perspective of the theory of fiscal federalism, intergovernmental fiscal tools are designed that allow an impact on inequities and inequalities between both levels of government. The educational investment gap with subnational financing increased from 5 to 8 times between the lowest and highest investment. The national State, established with funds of national origin to reduce it to between 3 and 5 times, remaining constant throughout the period. The incidence of transfers of national origin made it possible to reduce the gap of structural inequality in educational investment between subnational jurisdictions, although the challenge consists in planning financing in the search for equity and distributive justice under this federal and decentralized scheme.

Decentralize! Art, Power, and Space in the New York Art World

Have we witnessed the return of critique in the U.S. art world? Taking the decentralization of art institutions as a tactic of critique, this paper identifies waves of critique in the contemporary art world, with particular attention to New York City in the late 1960s-early 1970s, and the 2010s. Though certain critical aims and strategies have persisted, this period spans an impassable divide: the end of affordable space – for artist studios, galleries, community art centers – in the urban cores of U.S. cities. By attending to changes in the ways artists have withdrawn from, attacked, or engaged with institutional spaces, this article traces the changing definitions of critique and criticality as a function of access to space.

Strengthening financial decentralization: driver or risk factor for sustainable socio-economic development of territories?

The article deals with the problem of modeling the effectiveness of the development of financial decentralization mechanisms. A conceptual approach is proposed, which allows to form a complex of models. The models allow to evaluate the socio-economic effects of financial decentralization increase; to determine the “threshold” value of the level of financial decentralization, upon which slowdown in economic growth may occur. The models are based on based on the principal components’ method, canonical correlations, cluster analysis, Kohonen neural networks, the level of development method, production and institutional functions. The modeling results showed that a high level of financial decentralization is inherent to countries with a high level of economic development, where high quality institutional environment and administrative decentralization lead to the increase of the efficiency of the public sector functioning. At the same time, in countries with a high level of competitiveness and socio-economic development the gap between the growth rates of income and expenditure powers of budgets of various levels and the growth rate of GDP is growing. This fact reduces the level of budget and debt security. Models of production and institutional functions have been developed, countries with a “reference” development model have been identified, as well as groups of countries that would have a higher effect from the re-centralization of government finances or financial decentralization.

COMPLEX OF MODELS OF FINANCIAL DECENTRALISATION ANALYSIS AND ASSESSMENT

It is a problem of a financial decentralization mechanism modelling to be considered in the paper. It introduces a methodical approach to the construction of models of financial decentralization assessment and analysis complex, that, basing on the methods of factor, canonical analysis, cluster analysis, development level method, Kohonen neural networks, panel data models, allows to create diagnostic classes of the financial decentralization level, choose an «etalon» model of development and assess the impact of the financial decentralization level on indicators of socio-economic development of territories. The methodological approach proposed includes the following stages: classification of countries according to the level of socio-economic development and competitiveness, the formation of a comparable research base; the formation of an indicators system and diagnostic classes of the level of financial decentralization; development of models for assessing the impact of financial decentralization on socio-economic indicators of territories development. To build a set of models Statistica, R, Deductor Studio, EViews were used. The simulation results showed that a high level of financial decentralization is typical for countries with high level of economic development, where there is a high quality of the institutional environment and administrative decentralization, this leads to increase in the efficiency of the public sector operation and economic growth as consequence. Income decentralization is bounded to a stronger effect on economic growth than expenditure decentralization. The result of the strengthening of federalism aligning and tax autonomy is a slowdown in economic growth. Meanwhile, the negative effect of tax autonomy is stronger than the effect of aligning federalism. There is a gap between the growth rates of income and expenditure powers of budgets of different levels and the GDP growth rates in countries with a high level of competitiveness and socio-economic development, that reduces the level of fiscal and debt security. Therefore, a promising area of research is assessing the systemic risk of financial policy and stability of the financial system to the impact of external «shocks»

Earmarked and Block Grants in Macedonia: Options for Reform

Earmarked and Block Grants in Macedonia: Options for Reform

Entrepreneurial Orientation of School Principals and Principalship in Croatia and Bosnia &amp; Herzegovina: Psychological, Educational and Social Perspectives

The entrepreneurial involvement of educational institutions at the elementary and the secondary educational levels has not been systematically analyzed in the existing body of literature, although the decentralization and autonomy of educational institutions have been emphasized in educational policies since the 1980s. This study provides an empirical analysis of the entrepreneurial orientation, as related to the schools in Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina and their principals. The influence of this orientation is analyzed from the perspectives of principals’ personal job satisfaction, perceived contribution to the society and the perception of the social role/influence of principalship. The empirical findings show that the entrepreneurial orientation of schools and their principals in Croatia and B&H are closely inter-related. More enterprising principals are also more satisfied with their jobs, and they feel to be contributing to the society more. However, the same does not apply to their perceived social standing/status, which could be attributed to their intrinsic motivation, but such a conclusion needs to be verified by further research. The results of this study show that the entrepreneurial orientation(s) of schools and school principals should be considered as useful descriptors of individual and institutional behaviour in the educational systems of South-East Europe.

Instability and Change in Collective Bargaining: An Analysis of the Effects of Changing Institutional Structures

AbstractPrevious studies on collective bargaining structures and macroeconomic performance have largely ignored the role of stable and instable institutional structures and the effects of institutional change itself. In this article we posit that institutional stability of collective bargaining is of major importance for the moderation of unit labour costs growth. This hypothesis is tested on the basis of data which cover the period 1965–2012 and includes 28 countries. The results show that institutional change impairs the capacity to moderate unit labour cost growth significantly in the subsequent years following the change. This effect also holds for changes in both decentralization and centralization of institutions.

A kutatás-fejlesztés és a versenyképesség térbeli összefüggései a visegrádi országokban

In regional studies, place-based and endogenous regional development and regional competitiveness became a major focus accompanied by an emphasis on the local application of research and development. On a similar note, one of the most important means of the renewed EU cohesion policy is the institutional decentralization of research and development and the strengthened support of scientific activities, also acting as the central focus, for instance, for the regional innovation strategies for smart specialization (RIS3). In our study, first, we look at the definition of regional competitiveness and the related interpretation frames. Next, we focus on models of competitiveness and propose a renewed pyramid model of regional competitiveness as a synthesis of the endogenous regional growth approach and development theories. Afterward, we proceed to the competitiveness analysis of 93 NUTS 3 level regions of 4 East-Central European countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia) conducted by principal component analysis methods based on statistical data tables. We studied the spatial connection between research and development and county competitiveness along our renewed pyramid model. In all the four countries, we handled capital cities together with their neighboring counties as common standalone entities, and we also combined seven metropolitan counties in Poland. Echoing the widespread, relative definition of regional competitiveness, we mostly compared counties with each other. Based on our results, we differentiated four county competitiveness types. In determining the main competitiveness types of the Central and Eastern European regions we extensively drew upon the findings of Gyula Horvath, who carried out significant work in this field.

POLAND – EUROPEAN MODEL OF DECENTRALIZATION REFORM

Poland, a country become free, like Romania, has joined the process of democratic transition, the first reform via decentralization has been developed since 1990 and could serve as a model in the implementation of the decentralization reform, establishing a true institutional and financial decentralization. What we propose in this article is to analyze the way administrative-territorial decentralization of Poland, a country that was governed through centralized communist systems similar to Romania, has performed in implementing decentralization and local autonomy in the governance process of the local public administration. The European experience indicates that in order to succeed in reforms in the field of decentralization and local autonomy, it is necessary to divide territory into independent administrative-territorial units, able to govern themselves and manage their own public affairs.

Long-term care facilities for the elderly: from legislation to needs

Objective: to analyze existing federal legislation on public policies that deal with the elderly’s rights, with emphasis onthe assistance provided in long-term care facilities for the elderly and the practical impact of these laws. Methods: this is adocumentary analysis of descriptive character. Results: one identified, among nineteen laws, decrees and ordinances in thelast 25 years, significant developments aimed at the elderly’s welfare, as well as structural proposals and the supervisionof long-term care institutions. Conclusion: the analysis conducted in the documents allowed the conclusion that the needspoint to the decentralization of institutions, increase of vacancies and bigger financial investment of public institutions.

“Not a fully homogeneous grouping”: Forming an Office of Worship in the Archdiocese of Seattle

When the Archdiocese of Seattle considered the question of forming a new office to coordinate liturgical efforts in 1976, it consulted extensively with local laity and clergy about the project. The proliferation of liturgical reforms and the increased media attention directed at Catholics and their liturgy following the Second Vatican Council influenced that consultation process as did local preferences for geographic and institutional decentralization. The small task force charged with conducting research discerned a range of ways Seattle Catholics imagined a potential office with some envisioning an aid to local autonomy and others a source of binding norms. In their recommendation for the office’s formation, the task force proposed a model that balanced a strategy for collaboration with one for forming local Catholics into communities who could engage in that collaboration. They hoped to form parishes into homogeneous groups, minimizing liturgical conflict and maximizing common worship.

How Authoritarianism Intensifies Punctuated Equilibrium: The Dynamics of Policy Attention in Hong Kong

The punctuated equilibrium theory contends that government attention allocation is universally leptokurtic in that long periods of stability are punctuated by bursts of rapid and radical change; the empirical evidence in support of this claim is however exclusively drawn from democratic systems. The absence of electoral politics and institutional decentralization in authoritarian regimes could presumably affect institutional friction; whether and how this might pose as a qualification to the thesis is of major interest. By analyzing four streams of government actions in Hong Kong from 1946 to 2007 straddling the colonial and postcolonial regimes, we have found that government processes are generally leptokurtic even under authoritarian regime institutions, with the degree of the dispersion of decision‐making power across the streams of actions affecting the magnitude of punctuation. We have also found that punctuation was greater when the political system was more centralized but declined as the political system democratized.

Implementation Guidelines of the New Public Management. Cases of Romania and Sweden

Global transformations throughout the past decades impose that the public sector should act more efficiently in service of the citizen; therefore, public management has borrowed a series of organizational and functional principles from the private sector management. These public management reforms aim at depoliticization, debureaucratisation and improvement of the public sector, through the processes of liberalization, deregulation and decentralization of state institutions and state authority. A new pattern of public sector coordination, named the new public management, takes shape (NPM).