Dissertation Research: Process and Project of Decentralization in Federal and Unitary States in Latin America

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The recent trend toward decentralization in Latin American is in sharp contrast to a colonial legacy and reputation of extreme government centralization. Across the region, decentralization has become an increasingly hot topic as more states undertake decentralizing reforms. My research seeks to address both the causses and the process of decentralization in Latin America. In the first part, I plan to collect data from the whole region in order to test several hypothesized causes of fiscal and political decentralization. The second part complements the first by explaining the process and mechanisms of decentralization. The combination of these two parts makes it possible to advance significantly our understanding of decentralization. Several important theoretical distinctions frame this study. The first is a definition of decentralization which is distinct conceptually from that of federalism. The second is a conceptual and empirical distinction between fiscal and political decentralization. Finally, federalism is defined in terms of the constitutional structure of the state. In the region-wide study, several hypotheses are derived from the literature and are tested on data for the past 30 years. Federal state structure, economic crisis, higher levels of development, the existence of significant ethnic and social cleavages, and a crisis of political legitimacy are hypothesized to lead to greater fiscal and political decentralization. After exploring these region-wide explanations for fiscal and political decentralization, it is possible to examine the causal relationship between them. Having determined the casual explanation for fiscal and political decentralization based on a region-wide sample in part one, part two takes up the question of how decentralization occurs. Field studies are conducted in Colombia, Costa Rica and Venezuela in order to trace the process of decentralization. Through field research, including interviews with local officials and municipal support organizations, I hope to understand the mechanism through which the causes identified above lead to decentralization. These data are used to consider the importance of efficiency, sources of the pressure to decentralize - top or bottom, and whether these changes occur through constitutional change or legislative mandate. The combination of these two research strategies, case study and quantitative testing, permits significant conclusions about the process and the causes of decentralization in Latin America. Policy makers and elites in Latin American are expressing substantial interest in decentralization. Understanding what leads to decentralization, and how those factors bring it about, is the responsibility of political science.