The accentuated interest in the quality of governance along with the idea that ‘what is measured is what matters’ has been endorsing the deployment and use of quantitative governance indicators. Moreover, decentralization and public policies emphasising localism are putting the focus on local governments. This article addresses the challenges of developing indicators and using the information f...

Introduction Fifty years after Gandhi wrote the words above, India embarked on what may prove to be one of the most significant changes in its structures of governance, the 73rd and 74th amendments to the Constitution of India, which give local governments, rural and urban, a legal status that they formerly lacked. If these institutional reforms towards greater decentralization of governance do...

This paper examines the functioning of some of India’s institutions of governance, namely, the legislative and executive branches of government, the judiciary, and the bureaucracy, from an instrumental, economic perspective. Governance is analyzed along three dimensions: (1) the degree of commitment or durability of laws and rules, (2) the degree of enforcement of these laws, and (3) the degree...

In many African countries, decentralization has long been viewed as a means for improving local service delivery. Yet, despite various decentralization initiatives, poor service delivery continues to be problematic in two of Kenya’s largest cities, Nairobi and Mombasa. Despite various governance reforms to enhance Kenya’s decentralization process, backed up by constitutional provisions and legi...

— This article suggests that efforts to study decentralization outcomes would benefit from widening the unit of analysis from the local government administration to the local governance system. Many individual local governments, especially in developing countries, lack the human and physical resources to be effective governors by themselves. It is, thus, useful to recognize the linkages between...

This commentary reviews contemporary changes in aid modalities and their impact on processes of decentralization. The main change in aid delivery and disbursement considered is towards a greater emphasis on general budget support (GBS) and sector wide approaches (SWAPs). This includes considering the broad questions of firstly, the impact of emphasising GBS on local government and governance sy...

Introduction Despite long-term commitment to decentralization in India, progress towards a decentralized form of governance has been rather slow. In Karnataka, despite state compliance with decentralised governance legislation from the mid-1980s, local bodies continue to suffer from inadequate power and resources. Under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), decentralization plays an importa...