
Going Local
Decentralization, Democratization, and the Promise of Good Governance
Merilee S. Grindle(Author)
Princeton University Press
Published on 15. April 2007
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-0-691-12907-5 (ISBN)
Description
Many developing countries have a history of highly centralized governments. Since the late 1980s, a large number of these governments have introduced decentralization to increase democracy and improve services, especially in small communities far from capital cities. In "Going Local", an unprecedented study of the effects of decentralization on thirty Mexican municipalities, Merilee Grindle describes how local governments respond when they are assigned new responsibilities and resources under decentralization policies. She explains why decentralization leads to better local governments in some cases - and why it fails to in others. Combining quantitative and qualitative methods, Grindle examines data based on a random sample of Mexican municipalities - and ventures into town halls to follow public officials as they seek to manage a variety of tasks amid conflicting pressures and new expectations. Decentralization, she discovers, is a double-edged sword. While it allows public leaders to make significant reforms quickly, institutional weaknesses undermine the durability of change, and legacies of the past continue to affect how public problems are addressed.
Citizens participate, but they are more successful at extracting resources from government than in holding local officials and agencies accountable for their actions. The benefits of decentralization regularly predicted by economists, political scientists, and management specialists are not inevitable, she argues. Rather, they are strongly influenced by the quality of local leadership and politics.
Citizens participate, but they are more successful at extracting resources from government than in holding local officials and agencies accountable for their actions. The benefits of decentralization regularly predicted by economists, political scientists, and management specialists are not inevitable, she argues. Rather, they are strongly influenced by the quality of local leadership and politics.
Reviews / Votes
In analyzing the exciting array of promising reforms as well as the inertia of clientelistic traditions, Grindle weights the introduction of political-party competition, the role of innovative ideas and entrepreneurial leaders, the implementation of modern methods of public administration, and the logic of civil society. -- Richard Feinberg Foreign Affairs Merilee Grindle has already made her reputation as a painstaking scholar of governance, bureaucracy and policymaking in Latin America and across the developing world, but Going Local seals her standing as a leading analyst of governance. -- Diane E. Davis ReVista [T]his book will be a valuable reference not only for scholars interested in decentralization or local government in Mexico, but for anyone who is interested in public affairs... Grindle contributes to all these discussions, and does so in an entertaining and convincing way. -- Guillermo M. Cejudo Public Administration ReviewMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
New Jersey
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Product notice
Trade binding
Illustrations
7 Maps
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
510 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-691-12907-5 (9780691129075)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Merilee S. Grindle is Edward S. Mason Professor of International Development at the Kennedy School of Government and Director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University. She is the author, most recently, of "Despite the Odds: The Contentious Politics of Education Reform" (Princeton).
Content
List of Illustrations ix List of Tables xi Acronyms xiii Acknowledgments xv CHAPTER ONE: Going Local: Governance on the Line 1 CHAPTER TWO: Decentralizing Mexico: A Cautious Journey 25 CHAPTER THREE: Competitive Elections and Good Governance 63 CHAPTER FOUR: At Work in Town Hall: Leadership and Performance 85 CHAPTER FIVE: Modernizing Town Hall 106 CHAPTER SIX: Civil Society: Extracting Benefits and Demanding Accountability 124 CHAPTER SEVEN: What's New? Patterns of Municipal Innovation 145 CHAPTER EIGHT: The Promise of Good Governance 164 Notes 187 Bibliography 205 Index 217