Update > Political Decentralization

Political Decentralization

2022-09-05

Political decentralization aims to give citizens or their elected representatives more power in public decision making. It is often associated with pluralistic politics and representative government, but it can also support democratization by giving citizens, or their representatives, more influence in the formulation and implementation of policies.

Advocates of political decentralization assume that decisions made with greater participation will be better informed and more relevant to diverse interests in society than those made only by national political authorities. The concept implies that the selection of representatives from local electoral jurisdictions allows citizens to know better their political representatives and allows elected officials to know better the needs and desires of their constituents.

Political decentralization involves two elements:

1. Electoral decentralization: transferring the power to choose and appoint local officials from the central governments to local governments. Electoral decentralization allows citizens to elect representatives who will serve in regional or local subunits.

2. Structural decentralization: transferring the authority to structure government at the regional or local level. Structural decentralization involves empowering the local level to formulate, monitor and evaluate the governance tasks transferred from the national center. This could involve creating (or changing) a structure of local government to include legislative, executive or even judicial functions and institutions.

An important variable that influences the effectiveness of decentralization is the dynamics of the political party system in a country—in particular whether parties are regionalized. If national parties are very centralized and appoint regional positions from the center, this will limit the depth that political decentralization can achieve. On the other hand, if regionalized national parties or independent regional parties dominate regional politics, this makes it more likely that a decentralized constitutional design will lead to a genuine decentralization of political power.

Case Study: Local Government in the Netherlands

The Provinces
Each province is governed by a representative provincial council (Provinciale Staten). Its members are elected by direct universal suffrage. The size of the council depends on the number of inhabitants in the province. Members are elected for four-year terms.From among their members, the councils elect provincial executives (Gedeputeerde Staten) with six to eight members. Each province has a commissioner appointed by and representing the crown. The principal provincial duties can be summarized as follows:

• Planning and housing

• Environmental management

• Welfare

• Water and infrastructure management

• Economic and agricultural matters

• Public transport

• Supervising the municipal authorities

• Administration of justice

The Municipalities
The municipalities are administered by municipal councils, which are elected directly for four-year terms by the local inhabitants and make local bylaws. The executive powers of the municipality are entrusted to a corporate board consisting of a burgomaster and two to six aldermen; the latter are elected from and by the council, while the burgomaster is appointed by the crown. The important function of flood control and water management is exercised by autonomous public authorities, some of which date as far back as the 13th century. It is the municipal authority’s duty to deal with matters that affect its residents directly and exclusively. This involves providing certain duties, services and amenities.The municipality is responsible for such things as:

• Providing acceptable and sufficient housing.

• Constructing and maintaining local streets and roads and, in cities, for public transport.

• Collecting and disposing of domestic refuse.

• The fire department and the police.

• Markets, docks and waterways, sewers and water treatment.

• All kinds of welfare facilities and social security.

• Recreational and sports facilities.

• The arts and education.

• Issuing licenses and permits to companies and catering establishments, passports, ID-cards and driving licenses.

Source: The Dutch Political System in a Nutshell

Case Study: Decentralization in India
At independence, India adopted a governance model based on centralized structure of governance. This centralized model was chosen in order to give the central government the power to deal with issues related to the ethnic, linguistic and regional problems in the country.However, this system failed to resolve many of these problems. This led to opposition to the centralized governance structure and called for increased decentralization. This opposition compelled the Government of India to amend the Constitution (73rd and 74th Amendments) to strengthen the Panchayati Raj (local government) Institutions in India. Consequently, the Constitution was amended to establish “Panchayats (local governments) at village and other level or levels”, based on direct elections to all seats in the Panchayats at all the levels.

Summary of the major provisions of the 73rd Amendment (the 74th Amendment makes similar provisions for municipal (urban) local government)

1. The establishment of a three-tier structure, with elected bodies at village, block and district levels (States with populations less than 2 million are not required to introduce block-level Panchayats);
2. The recognition that the Gram Sabha (village council) constitutes a deliberative body at the village level.

3. Direct elections to five-year terms for all members at all levels.

4. One-third of all seats are reserved for women; reservations for Scheduled Casts (marginalized groups) and Scheduled Tribes (ethnic minorities) proportional to their populations.

5. Reservations for chairpersons of the Panchayats (“Sarpanches”) following the same guidelines.6. State legislatures may provide reservations for other marginalized groups.

6. A State Election Commission (SEC) will be created to supervise, organize and oversee Panchayat elections at all levels.

7. A State Finance Commission (SFC) will be established to review and revise the financial position of the Panchayats on five-year intervals, and to make recommendations to the State government about the distribution of Panchayat funds.

Source: Decentralization in India: Poverty, Politics and Panchayati Raj