Governance from below: a theory of local government with two empirical tests

Jean-Paul Faguet

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: I examine decentralization through the lens of the local dynamics that it unleashes. The national effects of decentralization are simply the sum of its local-level effects. Hence to understand decentralization we must first understand how local government works. This paper proposes a theory of local government as the confluence of two quasi-markets and one organizational dynamic. Good government results when these three elements - political, economic and civil - are in rough balance, and actors in one cannot distort the others. Specific types of imbalance map into specific forms of government failure. I use comparative analysis to test the theory's predictions with qualitative and quantitative evidence from Bolivia. The combined methodology provides a higher-order empirical rigor than either approach can alone. The theory proves robust.

Keywords: Local government; civil society; democratic theory; good governance; decentralization; Q2 (Q-squared); Bolivia. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D71 H41 H42 H72 O18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 48 pages
Date: 2005-09-05
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/475/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: GOVERNANCE FROM BELOW A Theory of Local Government With Two Empirical Tests (2005)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:475

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