Accountability and Decentralized Service Delivery: Explaining Performance Variation Across Local Governments in Indonesia - Softcover

Eckardt, Sebastian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 3832937870 ISBN 13: 9783832937874

Publisher: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft Mbh & Co, 2009

Synopsis

Does decentralization improve public service delivery? Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, this dissertation examines varying outcomes of decentralization policy in Indonesia. It shows - both theoretically and empirically - that the performance of newly empowered local governments is deeply rooted in local politics. If local political processes are distorted, political and bureaucratic agents face incentives to use the greater fiscal and political independence that comes with decentralization to draw private 'rents' and, consequently, these agents often fail to deliver basic services. Conversely, higher accountability increases the political costs of inefficient and inadequate public decisions, and public service performance is likely to improve. This requires the interaction of local political institutions, the electoral regime, and a well informed and a politically active community able to broadly participate directly and indirectly in exacting accountability. Economists, political scientists, and practitioners of decentralization and public sector reform in emerging markets will take great interest in this book.

Edition details

• Publisher: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft Mbh & Co
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3832937870
• ISBN 13: 9783832937874
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 238