New Studies of Political Decentralization in Latin America

The idea of political decentralization has drawn attention and action in Latin America over the past twenty years, for varied reasons. With authoritarian regimes in decline, empowering local communities to choose appropriate public policies for their regions has offered the prospect of deepening democratic governance. Projects to reform the state, in a period of globalization, have often asserted that diffused authority would prove both more efficient and more effective. Local initiatives for development have been more likely to receive increased consideration at a time when sweeping state-led formulas for economic growth have lost prestige.

These five volumes assess decentralizing efforts in selected Latin American nations and are notable, even in a diverse group, for the common ground they share. They differ little in defining decentralization itself. Using more specialized terms such as "delegation" and "deconcentration" only sparingly, these authors characterize decentralization as (broadly speaking) the diffusion of decision-making powers over specific policy areas, and the resources to implement those powers, from central to local authorities. Virtually all the authors reviewed here assume that redistributing power in this way is potentially constructive, though none is sanguine that maximal gains are likely to be achieved soon. These books and essays also adopt an empirical approach, though they tend to emphasize different sorts of data and some different canons of assessment. Most authors here also recognize the varied forms, pace, sequence, and impact that decentralization processes may display in Latin America. Diffusing political power, these studies argue, may help empower individuals and local communities, or it may cement narrow and undemocratic district authorities. Decision-making authority and financial resources may be redistributed at notably different rates in different nations; a process of decentralization may even be reversed under some circumstances, albeit at some political cost. I assess these volumes comparatively, considering their varied breadth, research styles, findings, and implications. In the case of two of these books, I note their inclusion of cases from beyond Latin America, and I evaluate how evidence from other regions sheds light on decentralization in the Western Hemisphere.

Fernando Carrión has brought together in a single volume a set of judicious and data-rich research papers that were presented at a conference in Quito in late 1999, analyzing decentralization efforts in the Andes since the 1980s. Cosponsors of the conference were FLACSO, the OAS, and the Parlamento Andino. The core of this edited book lies in a set of six country studies: Fabio E. Velásquez reports on Colombia, José Blanes on Bolivia, Alberto Adrianzén and Manuel Dammert (in separate chapters) on Peru, Carlos Mascareño on Venezuela, and Diego Peña Carrasco on Ecuador.

The pattern presented by these authors depicts Colombia and Bolivia as having gone furthest in the Andean region towards decentralization. Colombia progressed primarily through a 1986 law establishing mayoral elections, the new constitution of 1991, and a series of new related statutes, and Bolivia did so through the Law of Popular Participation (1994) and Law of Administrative Decentralization (1995). Colombian elites sought to re-legitimate the national political system, beset by civic strikes in hundreds of mid-size towns. One enduring problem in Colombia, Velásquez reports, is "the interference of the central government in regional and local management," bringing the nation close to "a model of decentralization...