Decentralization

Concept of DecentralizationDecentralization represents one of the most fundamental governance shifts in recent decades.While the concept generally refers to allocating more powers to subnational tiers of government, scholars are not fully consistent in how they utilize the term.Some see decentralization predominantly through a spatial lens and focus on the administrative fragmentation of territories where ci ties, states, counties, councils, districts, or provinces are split into new units (Hassan, 2016; Resnic k, 2017; Talitha et a l., 2020).Others, such as Riedl and Tyler Dickovick (2014), disaggregate the concept into its fiscal, political, and administrative components.Fiscal decentralization refers to allocating more revenue raising and expenditure powers to subnational authorities, while political decentralization implies that local authorities are elected by their communities rather than being appointed by the national government.Administrative decentralizat ion captures whether local governments have their own autonomous civil service instead of relying on staff who are upwardly accountable to a national ministry or agen cy.