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Does decentralization make a difference?

Does decentralization make a difference?. National policies of institutional decentralization and their impact on local government performance in France, England and Germany compared - Report from an ongoing research project -. Falk Ebinger Stephan Grohs Renate Reiter. Background.

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Does decentralization make a difference?

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  1. Does decentralization make a difference? National policies of institutional decentralization and their impact on local government performance in France, England and Germany compared - Report from an ongoing research project - Falk Ebinger Stephan Grohs Renate Reiter

  2. Background Research project „European Local Systems under Change: Institutional Decentralization and its Effects” funded by the Project management: Jörg Bogumil (Ruhr-University Bochum) Sabine Kuhlmann (University of Potsdam) Duration: 1/2007 to 12/2009 Website: http://homepage.rub.de/Joerg.Bogumil/Lokalsysteme.htm

  3. Research interest What is the impact of national policies of institutional decentralization on the functional profiles and the performance of local governments as providers of public goods and services? Comparison between France, England and Germany

  4. Central theoretical premises • The performance of local governments directly relates to the specific organisational model (multi purposive; single purposive) underlying public administration and the intergovernmental setting in a respective state (Wollmann/Bouckaert 2006). • Decentralization policies reshape national profiles of inter-governmental public administration organisation and therefore should have effects on local governments´ performance record as local service suppliers/producers

  5. Five Performance Dimensions • Democratic control / accountability • Horizontal and vertical coordination • Efficiency • Effectiveness • Coherence of service production in an inter-local comparison: heterogenisation / homo-genisation

  6. Defining decentralization Three ideal-typical modes of decentralization: • Political decentralization: transfer of state functions and decision rights from (central) state level of government into the sphere of local self-government • Administrative decentralization: Transfer of state functions without transfer of decision rights • Administrative deconcentration: Delegation of state functions from central to sub-central level of state administration

  7. Framework for analysis of decentrali-zation-related performance effects First step of analysis National Decentralization reforms Institutional impact on local governments’ place and function in national public administrative model Performance change Second step of analysis Actor-, country- and policy-specific explanatory factors

  8. Traditional country profiles before decentralization

  9. Change of country profiles in the course of decentralization

  10. Country profiles: Expected local effects of institutional decentralization

  11. Measuring local government perfor-mance: dimensions and indicators

  12. First results

  13. Final remarks and next steps • Decentralization does make a difference • Set of dimensions and indicators seem to cover actual changes in each country; • Heterogenisation of service production and delivery in each country as one general trend; yet too early for qualification of results • No definitive conclusions/ results at the actual stage of the project • Intensive case studies, more policy fields, expert interviews

  14. Thank you for your attention! Renate Reiter, Dipl.-Pol. Universität Potsdam LS Politik und Regieren in Deutschland & Europa August-Bebel-Straße 89 14482 Potsdam, Germany Tel: +49 (0)331 977-4470 mail: rreiter@uni-potsdam.de http://www.uni-potsdam.de/u/ls_regierungssystem_brd http://homepage.rub.de/Joerg.Bogumil/Lokalsysteme.htm

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