Accountability is at the heart of the democratic enterprise. One commonly touted benefit of decentralization is that it promotes this accountability by allowing sub-national governments to target fiscal policy more precisely to the varying preferences […]
In 1988, Ghana began a new decentralization policy framework that focused on grassroots citizens’ participation for the effective and efficient services delivery. Since then, the number of local government (LG) authorities have more than doubled […]
Decentralization can allow the public sector to be more inclusive and responsive, but only when local leaders make well-informed policy choices. This begs the question: what role can policy-effectiveness research play in spurring the spread […]
A book by Charles R. Hankla, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez and Raúl A. Ponce Rodríguez Scholars and practitioners have long hailed fiscal federalism as a critical tool for improving government services, but it has not always lived […]
Delivering public services to the satisfaction of the citizen is an important challenge confronted by democratic governments everywhere in the modern world. Unlike authoritarian rulers who may conveniently ignore public opinion, democratic governments can do […]
One important aspect of a decentralization is that it expands the space for political competition beyond the national stage, and provides an opportunity for opposition candidates to prove their worth to the electorate—for instance, as […]
In September 2013, The Asia Foundation published its first report on Myanmar, State and Region Governments in Myanmar. The report provoked a great deal of interest in subnational governance from government, civil society, donors, and […]
Three famous Virginians— James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and George Mason—were leading voices in the drafting of the United States Constitution which made federalism and self-governance cornerstones of American democracy. Although their writings have inspired and […]
Although Americans are more sharply divided along political lines than ever, most Americans agree on the bedrock principles of the American federal system, including the distribution of powers and responsibilities between federal, state and local […]
Why do some countries redistribute more to poorer regions than others? This paper explores which factors explain variation in the degree of interregional redistribution among countries between 1983 and 2010. The main argument is that […]
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