Discriminating Decentralization

Discriminating Decentralization FEDERALISM AND THE HANDLING OF ASYLUM APPLICATIONS IN SWITZERLAND, 1988-1996 THOMAS HOLZER

Federalism belongs to those institutions that usually attract more admirers than critics. This study investigates whether decentralized decision making in the asylum domain undermines the principle of equality in the handling of individual cases. The externalities that power delegation creates are examined, and a principal/agent framework is developed to show how state discretion in the impleme...

Madagascar Decentralization

Political Decentralization

I provide a critical overview of the literature on political decentralization. After reviewing firstand second-generation theories of federalism, I describe recent empirical studies focusing mainly on determinants of capture and local government accountability emphasized by second-generation theories. The article concludes by describing emerging new issues that deserve more attention in future ...

Disaster and Decentralization

This paper studies the effect of fiscal and political decentralization on the death toll by disasters for up to 46 developing and transitional economies from 1974 to 2004. The results show that elected government at the local level does not help mitigate disaster risk. This study underscores the importance of the joint effects of different forms of decentralization and shows that when political...

Decentralization : Conceptualization and Measurement

Aaron Schneider is a political scientist at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex. His research interests include comparative politics, public finance, and methodology. His current research projects include studies of federalism, decentralization, party systems, budgeting, and taxation. He has conducted research in Brazil and India, and plans to apply the measures der...