The Politics of Decentralization: Competition in Land Administration and Management in Ghana

Decentralization policy forms part of a broader global ideology and effort of the international donor community in favor of subsidiarity and local participation, and represents a paradigm shift from top-down command-and-control systems. Since 2003, the formalization of property rights through titling became an integral component of decentralized land administration efforts in Ghana. The creation of new forms of local government structures and the related changes in the distribution of responsibilities between different levels of government have an impact on natural resource management, the allocation of rights, and the unequal distribution of powers. This paper aims to understand how decentralization reforms modify the balance of power between public administration, customary authorities, and resource end-users in Ghana. Decentralization’s impact is analyzed based on two case studies. Relying on purposive and snowball sampling techniques, and mixed methods, we conducted 8 key informant interviews with local government bureaucrats in land administration, 16 semi-structured interviews with allodial landholders, 20 biographic interviews and 8 focus group discussions with small-scale farmers. The interviews analyzed the institutions and the roles of actors in land administration. Our case studies show that decentralization has the tendency to increase local competition in land administration where there are no clear distribution of power and obligation to local actors. Local competition and elitism in land administration impact the ability of small-scale farmers to regularize or formalize land rights. Thus, the paper concludes that local competition and the elitism within the land administration domain in Ghana could be the main obstacles towards decentralization reforms.

Features of Decentralization Processes of Developed Countries in the Post-Pandemic Society

Globalization and rapid information processes that are inherent in today's post-pandemic society, contributing to the reorganization of the authorities of many countries and their contacts with regions, local territorial units or civil society. Such changes, first of all, provide for delegation of authority at the level of regional and local authorities. However, many developing and today position their own society as post-modern, continue to be in a state of disunity of the branches of government, with a high level of corruption and abuse of official position, improper distribution of resources, inappropriate tax system and incompetent provision of services by relevant authorities. This affects the relevance of studying foreign experience in building a rational, effective, balanced public administration system, the leading place in which in almost all developed countries is the decentralization of the state and, above all, the executive branch. The foreign experience of the successful implementation of decentralization reforms is investigated. The main characteristics inherent in the decentralization of power in European countries are given, including in the context of the existence of a pandemic. The features of decentralization of power in France, the UK, Germany and other countries are highlighted. It is substantiated that the experience of decentralization reforms in each country is unique and reflects the specifics of the development of a particular country, and therefore it is impractical to introduce foreign experience without taking into account the particular economic and political development of a particular country.

Designing Decentralization in Jordan: Locating the Policy among the Politics

Jordan introduced legislation in 2015 to initiate a process of decentralization. Both the decision to decentralize as well as the form of decentralization that Jordan ultimately pursued have thus far been explained as regime efforts to reinforce its position and that of its clientelist base. While acknowledging that Jordan’s decision to decentralize was driven by broader political dynamics (including patron-clientelism), the article questions the extent to which these dynamics can account for the actual design of Jordan’s decentralization reforms. Through a detailed examination of the process through which the 2015 Decentralization Law was passed, the article argues that the Law was not only a result of patron-client politics, but also the product of a complex policy process. Drawing on this close-range investigation of the policy process leading to the Law, the article outlines some of the key parameters within which Jordanian policy is made, thereby contributing to the burgeoning literature that calls for policy to be brought into the study of authoritarian regimes.

Local Government in Japan

To understand the complex dynamics and role of local government in Japan’s democracy, three related questions need to be addressed. First, how much capacity and autonomy do local governments have to act? Second, what impact does local government have on national-level elections and policies? And finally, how responsive and accountable are local governments to residents? This chapter will seek to address these questions by first laying out the institutional framework of Japan’s local government system, including its recent decentralization reforms. In the second section, it illustrates how these institutional features combine with underlying socioeconomic conditions to shape local representation and intergovernmental relations. In the third section, it briefly considers two interlinked and key challenges facing local government: combatting depopulation and improving representation. The chapter finds that Japanese local government is significant in scale and indispensable to the administration of the Japanese state; decentralization reforms have further expanded local responsibilities while minimizing interventions from the central government; local governments continue to have a significant impact on the national arena, both electorally and policy-wise; local policy innovations in a wide range of areas have been co-opted nationally, while local lobbying and opposition pressures have induced central governments to respond to local interests; aside from some exceptional periods and limited regions, local government representation has not been driven by partisan or programmatic competition; and, more recently, local voters are demanding more of their representatives who have lost their clientelist role as communities face increasingly competitive environments, fiscal constraints, and pressures to innovate.

Impact of Fiscal Decentralization Reforms in Albania

Decentralization and fiscal decentralization constitute one of the most followed trends for political and economic reform in recent years around the world. Albania, in the 1990s, begins its process of transitioning from a centralized economy to a free-market economy. This process is accompanied by transforming existing economic mechanisms and infrastructure to better function the free-markets model, but above all, with the need to develop and create new legal, institutional, economic, and social instruments and spaces to increase the allocation and efficiency of public and private resources. The objective of this study is to give an appropriate answer to the question: What has been the impact of decentralization reforms on the performance of public services provided by local government? The research paper will focus on the role that improvements and legislative changes play in the country's economic growth. Within the past two decades, progress is made in advancing decentralization reform, but there are still many challenges ahead, such as the lack of a clear legal and regulatory framework. Adding to that concern is the financial autonomy of local governments, which remains a challenge for the future. The research methodology used will be a descriptive analysis of data obtained from the Ministry of Finance and Economy and local municipalities on the impact of the reforms. Recommendations and suggestions will be given on the reforming process, as well as ways to increase the efficiency of local government units.