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

拉丁美洲最近的权力下放趋势与殖民遗产和政府极端集权的名声形成鲜明对比。在整个地区，随着越来越多的国家进行分权改革，分权已成为一个日益热门的话题。我的研究旨在解决拉丁美洲权力下放的原因和过程。在第一部分中，我计划从整个地区收集数据，以检验几个假设的财政和政治分权的原因。第二部分通过解释权力下放的过程和机制来补充第一部分。这两部分的结合使得我们对去中心化的理解有可能大大提高。几个重要的理论区别构成了这项研究的框架。首先是分权的定义，在概念上与联邦制不同。第二是财政分权和政治分权在概念和经验上的区别。最后，联邦制是根据国家的宪法结构来定义的。在区域范围内的研究中，从文献中得出了几个假设，并对过去30年的数据进行了检验。联邦制国家结构、经济危机、更高的发展水平、重大种族和社会分裂的存在以及政治合法性危机被假设为导致更大的财政和政治权力下放。在探索了这些区域范围内对财政和政治分权的解释之后，有可能检查它们之间的因果关系。在第一部分中基于区域范围的样本确定了对财政和政治权力下放的随意解释之后，第二部分探讨了权力下放如何发生的问题。为了追踪权力下放的过程，在哥伦比亚、哥斯达黎加和委内瑞拉进行了实地研究。通过实地调查，包括对当地官员和市政支持组织的访谈，我希望了解上述原因导致分权的机制。这些数据被用来考虑效率的重要性、权力下放的压力来源——自上而下还是自下而上，以及这些变化是通过宪法改革还是立法授权发生的。结合这两种研究策略，即个案研究和数量测试，可以对拉丁美洲权力下放的过程和原因得出重要的结论。拉丁美洲的决策者和精英们对权力下放表现出极大的兴趣。理解是什么导致了权力下放，以及这些因素是如何导致权力下放的，是政治科学的责任。

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.