The Politics of Decentralization in Africa a Comparative Analysis

The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors and should not be attributed in any manner to the World Bank, to its affiliated organizations, or to members of its Board of Executive Directors or the countries they represent. INTRODUCTION Alongside the familiar economic and democratic-electoral reforms that have occurred in African countries since 1980, and especially after 1990, another significant reform, if less visible and less celebrated, has been the progressive decentralization of the state. While analysts and practitioners have long noted the extreme centralization of the state in Africa since independence, the situation today is decidedly different. Whether arising from dramatic political reforms, donor pressure and programs, or as part of evolutionary administrative change, recent local governance revival has been one of the most significant facets of state restructuring in Africa since independence. In a recent World Bank study, thirteen of 30 countries surveyed showed high or moderate levels of decentralization as measured by a composite index of political, administrative, and fiscal devolution indicators. 1 Another thirteen showed at least some degree of decentralization, with several in the process of change. Although not all countries have fully revived local governance, the study also indicated no country in Africa today propounds a preference for the centralized state. Indeed, nearly all countries claim in one way or another to be decentralizing power, resources, and accountability to local levels. Yet, as present evidence indicates, the process of reform and results of recent decentralization are widely varied and the underlying processes not fully understood. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to our understanding of the different pathways to decentralization, via a focus on the political dynamics of the process. To be sure, the technical challenges associated with a move to decentralization are daunting. They include the creation of new political tiers of government, the introduction of intergovernmental fiscal systems, and the realignment of administrative systems. Correspondingly, there is a rich technical literature on the options within each of the administrative, fiscal, and political dimensions, as well as on the strengths and weaknesses of alternative sequencing options among the dimensions. The technical literature, however, tends to neglect the political underpinnings of decentralization, even though state transformation to shift resources and authority closer to the civic front-line is a profoundly political process. This paper aims to help redress the imbalance between technical and political analysis. The …