Numerous developing countries have substantially increased their number of subnational
administrative units in recent years. The literature on this phenomenon is, nonetheless …

Among other shortcomings of decentralization reforms undertaken by developing countries
since the 1980s, recent research finds that the reforms' primary aim—devolution of authority …

In recent years many countries across the world, especially in Africa, have created large
numbers of new local administrative units. This trend has largely gone unnoticed in the …

In many developing countries, a rhetorical commitment to decentralization often superficially
manifests through the creation of new or smaller administrative units at the sub-national …

The evolutionary theory of path dependency suggests that the longer an institution has been
in place, the more resilient it is to change. Given enough time and self-reinforcing …

The effects of economic and political reforms on patronage in Africa remains unclear. In
particular, there is much disagreement about whether structural adjustment programs and …

Why do some African local governments perform well, while others fail to deliver even the
most basic services to their constituents? Gina Lambright finds answers to this question in …

Alongside the familiar economic and democratic-electoral reforms that have occurred in
African countries since 1980, and especially after 1990, another significant reform, if less …

Over the past three decades the developing world has seen increasing devolution of
political and economic power to local governments. Decentralization is considered an …

Many developing countries have recently increased the number of their sub-national
administrative units. Existing literature explains this phenomenon by suggesting that …