A ll around the world in matters of governance, decentralization is the rage. Even apart from the widely debated issues of subsidiarity and devolution in the European Union and states’ rights in the United States, decentralization has been at the center stage of policy experiments in the last two decades in a large number of developing and transition economies in Latin America, Africa and Asia....

Mohammed, North, and Ashton find that decentralization in Fiji shifted health-sector workloads from tertiary hospitals to peripheral health centres, but with little transfer of administrative authority from the centre. Decisionmaking in five functional areas analysed remains highly centralized. They surmise that the benefits of decentralization in terms of services and outcomes will be limited....

Localisation and decentralization are frequently presented as good for women. However, the reality is not so clear-cut. Local government is in an ambiguous position. It is the part of the state closest to society and as such has the potential to engage most effectively with women. However, informal systems and institutional relationships, many of which are deeply patriarchal, also cut across lo...

Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology and Institute for Drug and Alcohol Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA, and Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, University of the West of England Bristol, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol, UK, and Research Triangle Institute, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA Correspondence Jenny Wiley, Research Triangle Institute, 3040 Cornwallis Road,...

This article attempts to shed new light on prevailing puzzles of spatial scales in multi-level, participatory governance as regards the democratic legitimacy and environmental effectiveness of governance systems. We focus on the governance re-scaling by the European Water Framework Directive, which introduced new governance scales (mandated river basin management) and demands consultation of ci...