If decentralization works, it can make the public sector more effective and responsive to the needs of the poor. If it doesn’t work, it can threaten economic and political stability, which can hurt the delivery of public services that are especially important to the poor.
How fiscal decentralization affects the persistent problem of poverty reduction in developing economies is still an open question in theory and practice. This study tried to look at the concept of fiscal decentralization and its effects on reducing poverty from both the optimistic and pessimistic points of view. It focused on emerging economies, especially Ghana, and used secondary sources of information. According to the study, fiscal decentralization has the potential to reduce poverty if it is supported by more local financial independence and the right budgetary allocation, priority, responsibility, and responsiveness. Some institutional flaws, like corruption, could be fixed by making people accountable and making sure rules are followed. To fix the problems that pessimists have found with fiscal decentralization, we pushed for a more effective, efficient, and transparent institutional and legal structure that would make it easier for money to move between the central government and local governments.
Decentralization is meant to help reduce poverty by giving local officials control over where resources are put, since they know where they are needed most. Decentralization, on the other hand, means that local governments have less control and more freedom to move money around for political or personal gain. We look into this trade-off by figuring out how much of the Constituency Development Fund, Kenya’s most important decentralized development program, goes to the poor. Statistics on how poverty is spread out in Kenyan seats and a detailed spatial dataset of 32,000 CDF projects show that most MPs do not give CDF projects with the poor in mind. Harris and Posner found that when they do, the poor and the not-poor tend to live in different places. This is usually in more rural, smaller districts (2019). Our research shows that politicians don’t help the poor not just because they don’t want to, but also because they are hard to reach and hard to help. In addition to these important findings, we show how aggregating to the administrative unit can hide important differences within geographic areas and how a point-level analysis can avoid this trap.
Democracy and decentralization are often seen as important ways to make people more accountable, get “good governance,” and reduce poverty, especially when it comes to international development. Both decentralization and democracy say they will make people more accountable and cut down on poverty, but there isn’t much evidence to support this, and some research suggests the opposite. Because of these worries, this article looks at and analyzes the research on governments that have given power and responsibility to lower levels of government. It says that democracy and decentralization do not always lead to more efficient or responsive systems to local needs and interests when looked at separately. It suggests four basic conditions for making local political entities more accountable to poor and politically marginalized groups in society. These conditions go beyond the relatively superficial changes that can be made by giving formal political powers and responsibilities to local governments.
What are the problems with not having everything in one place?
But subnational or local governments often can’t do their jobs or live up to their responsibilities because they don’t have enough resources, their institutions aren’t strong enough, there aren’t enough accounting and accountability systems, and there isn’t enough information.
How does inequality affect the way things are spread out?
Depending on regional growth, spending, income, or taxes tend to reduce regional imbalance. In other words, decentralization makes inequality worse in places with low levels of development.
Why are Filipinos spread out so much?
The main reason for decentralization is so that “each public service is provided by the jurisdiction that has control over the smallest geographic territory that would internalize the benefits and costs” (Oates 1972).
What does it mean to “decentralize” something?
Decentralization is the spreading or dividing of duties and power, especially in the context of government: a central government giving power to regional and local governments The state’s public school system is being moved away from the center of government.
What are the pros and cons of making things less centralized?
Since there is less pressure on top management, they don’t have to spend as much time putting out fires or solving day-to-day problems. Diversification and the development of younger leaders are also made easier. Loss of control, lack of coordination, and procedures that cost more are all bad things.
Is decentralization more beneficial or less beneficial?
In fact, there are more positive effects of decentralization than negative ones. This is because representatives at the lowest level become more proactive in their jobs and may feel important to the company because they are excited about coming up with ideas, planning, and other tasks.
What are the different kinds of decentralization?
This sourcebook looks at four main types of decentralization, based on how UNDP and World Bank papers classify them. Decentralization of political, administrative, financial, and market power Political decentralization is when power is given to a group in a certain area.
Why is it important to spread out power at the local level?
When the federal government, the states, and the local governments all share power, there are fewer conflicts. (ii) It is often best to solve a wide range of problems close to home. (iii) People in general know more about what’s going on in their area.
Which is better: putting everything in one place or spreading it out?
Businesses are finding out that the ways they used to cut costs that worked so well in the past are now making it harder for them to have the flexible supply chains that their customers want. The main benefit of decentralization over centralization is being able to respond quickly to market needs because of flexibility and data.
What doesn’t work about decentralization?
The right answer is: a. It lets lower-level managers focus on their own goals and objectives without having to think about the bigger goals and objectives of the company. This claim is not true.
What is the main goal of making things less centralized?
Decentralization is the process of giving more power to local governments instead of the federal and state governments. Decentralization is based on the idea that many problems and problems are best handled at the local level.