Arguably, liberal democratic societies are seeing the emergence of a ‘Fifth Estate’ that is being enabled by the Internet. This new organizational form is comparable to, but potentially more powerful than, the Fourth Estate, which developed as a significant force in an earlier period with an independent press and other mass media. While the significance of the press and the Internet to democrat...

T his Perspective is the second in a series in which the authors argue for practical steps aimed at reducing the fighting in Syria to provide more time for a national transition process. The ultimate goal of that process is an inclusive, unified, democratic Syria. As the international community continues to search for ways to resolve Syria’s civil war, this Perspective argues that decentralizat...

— Decentralized governance of water resources is a centerpiece of Mexico’s neoliberal reform strategy. We analyze decentralization based on urban/rural case studies in distinct geographical regions to ascertain whether it is linked to more efficient water management or sustainable use of water resources, and to examine its development implications. We assess whether or not private sector manage...

Blockchain design involves many tradeoffs, and much debate has focused on tradeoffs related to scaling parameters such as blocksize. To address some of the confusion around this subject, we present a probability proof of the DCS Triangle [1][2]. We use the triangle to show decentralized consensus systems, like blockchains, can have Decentralization, Consensus, or Scale, but not all three proper...

This paper reviews governance and institutional challenges facing educational systems in developing countries. We outline a framework for education service delivery and offer a comprehensive review of policies and programs to address the twin goals of decreasing barriers to attending school and reducing stark quality deficits with respect to developed countries. We review experimental and quasi...

The conventional wisdom is that government decentralization promotes policy innovation because it allows for several simultaneous experiments by local governments. However, this ignores a learning externality: successful policy experiments provide useful information for all governments. Local governments will ignore this externality, but a central government should take it into account. This pa...

This paper investigates the local effects of mining on quality public services and people’s optimism about their future living conditions in Africa. Most importantly, it assesses moderating role institutions governments’ taxing rights shaping proximity-to-mine effects. The empirical framework connects more than 130,000 respondents from Afrobarometer survey data (2005–2015) to closest mines base...

OBJECTIVE To examine whether decentralization has improved health system performance in the State of Ceara, north-east Brazil. METHODS Ceara is strongly committed to decentralization. A survey across 45 local (municipio) health systems collected data on performance and formal organization, including decentralization, informal management and local political culture. The indicators for informal...