IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jadmsc/v15y2025i5p187-d1659536.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Building a Decentralization Index in Portugal: A Proposal on Conceptual and Methodological Foundations

Author

Listed:
  • Helena Teles

    (Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas, Centro de Administração e Políticas Públicas, Unidade de Coordenação de Serviço Social e Política Social, Universidade de Lisboa, 1300-663 Lisbon, Portugal)

  • Temístocles Oliveira Júnior

    (Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas, Centro de Administração e Políticas Públicas, Unidade de Coordenação de Serviço Social e Política Social, Universidade de Lisboa, 1300-663 Lisbon, Portugal)

  • Joaquim Caeiro

    (Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas, Centro de Administração e Políticas Públicas, Unidade de Coordenação de Serviço Social e Política Social, Universidade de Lisboa, 1300-663 Lisbon, Portugal)

Abstract

Decentralization is a process that allows local governments to play a more active role in decision-making and the management of public policies. This process involves transferring responsibilities, resources, and authority from central to local governments, bringing the decisions and provision of public services and policies closer to the needs of citizens in each region. Portugal established a regime for asymmetric, multi-level, and multi-sectoral decentralization governance that is primarily focused on the policy (administrative) dimension. This study proposes conceptual and methodological foundations for building a decentralization index in Portugal aimed at measuring and comparing its outcomes across municipalities and policy areas of the social domain. The conceptual foundations enable a model that combines the state capacity concept with the three-dimensional decentralization theory, defining a framework of dimensions, objectives, and principles with potential indicators for a future index. The methodological cornerstones provide a qualitative scheme for determining the indicators that should comprise the decentralization index, data collection, processing methods, and analytical strategies. Although decentralization in Portugal dates back to the mid-2010s and the transfer of competences is formally complete as of 2023, at least in the social domain, its evaluation falls short of what is needed, including measuring its results in this domain. This study aims to present proposals that address these gaps and encourage a critical debate on decentralization, its frameworks, processes, and results.

Suggested Citation

  • Helena Teles & Temístocles Oliveira Júnior & Joaquim Caeiro, 2025. "Building a Decentralization Index in Portugal: A Proposal on Conceptual and Methodological Foundations," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-16, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jadmsc:v:15:y:2025:i:5:p:187-:d:1659536
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/15/5/187/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/15/5/187/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bellofatto, Antonio Andrés & Besfamille, Martín, 2018. "Regional state capacity and the optimal degree of fiscal decentralization," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 225-243.
    2. Arif Setiawan & Prijono Tjiptoherijanto & Benedictus Raksaka Mahi & Khoirunurrofik Khoirunurrofik, 2022. "The Impact of Local Government Capacity on Public Service Delivery: Lessons Learned from Decentralized Indonesia," Economies, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-13, December.
    3. Bossert, Thomas John & Mitchell, Andrew David, 2011. "Health sector decentralization and local decision-making: Decision space, institutional capacities and accountability in Pakistan," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 39-48, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gianmarco Daniele & Amedeo Piolatto & Willem Sas, 2018. "Who Sent You? Strategic Voting, Transfers and Bailouts in a Federation," Working Papers. Serie AD 2018-05, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
    2. Kalamov, Zarko & Staal, Klaas, 2023. "Too-big-to-fail in federations?," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    3. Lin, Boqiang & Zhou, Yicheng, 2021. "How does vertical fiscal imbalance affect the upgrading of industrial structure? Empirical evidence from China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    4. Aslim, Erkmen Giray & Neyapti, Bilin, 2017. "Optimal fiscal decentralization: Redistribution and welfare implications," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 224-234.
    5. Jiang, Wei & Li, Xitao & Liu, Ruoxi & Song, Yijia, 2022. "Local fiscal pressure, policy distortion and energy efficiency: Micro-evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 254(PB).
    6. Zhu, Jun & Xu, Haokun & Zhang, Yue, 2022. "Local government debt and firm productivity: Evidence from China," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    7. Barbara Rohregger & Katja Bender & Bethuel Kinuthia & Esther Schüring & Grace Ikua & Nicky Pouw, 2018. "The politics of implementation or why institutional interaction matters: The role of traditional authorities in delivering pro-poor social policies in Kenya," IZNE Working Paper Series 18/2, International Centre for Sustainable Development (IZNE), Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences.
    8. Alderighi, Marco & Feder, Christophe, 2020. "Institutional design, political competition and spillovers," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    9. Muhammad Arshad & Faisal Abbas & Harald Kächele & Yasir Mehmood & Nasir Mahmood & Klaus Mueller, 2022. "Analyzing the Impact of Government Social Spending, Population Growth and Foreign Remittances on Human Development in Pakistan: Implications for Policy," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 34(3), pages 1607-1626, June.
    10. Ngwira, Chikosa & Mayhew, Susannah H. & Hutchinson, Eleanor, 2021. "Community-level integration of health services and community health workers’ agency in Malawi," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 291(C).
    11. Guo, Si & Pei, Yun & Xie, Zoe, 2022. "A dynamic model of fiscal decentralization and public debt accumulation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    12. London, Jonathan D., 2013. "The promises and perils of hospital autonomy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 232-240.
    13. Bo, Shiyu & Deng, Liuchun & Sun, Yufeng & Wang, Boqun, 2021. "Intergovernmental communication under decentralization," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 606-652.
    14. Youshuai Sun & Demi Zhu & Zhenyu Zhang & Na Yan, 2022. "Does Fiscal Stress Improve the Environmental Efficiency? Perspective Based on the Urban Horizontal Fiscal Imbalance," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(10), pages 1-23, May.
    15. Jean-Louis Denis & Susan Usher & Johanne Préval, 2023. "Health reforms and policy capacity: the Canadian experience," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 42(1), pages 64-89.
    16. Antoine Zerbini & Federica Braccioli & Amedeo Piolatto, 2024. "The Taxing Challenges of the State: Unveiling the Role of Fiscal & Administrative Capacity in Development," Working Papers 1432, Barcelona School of Economics.
    17. Tang, Chenghui & Qiu, Peng & Dou, Jianmin, 2022. "The impact of borders and distance on knowledge spillovers — Evidence from cross-regional scientific and technological collaboration," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    18. Bellofatto, Antonio Andrés & Besfamille, Martín, 2021. "Tax decentralization notwithstanding regional disparities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    19. Soto, Victoria Eugenia & Farfan, Maria Isabel & Lorant, Vincent, 2012. "Fiscal decentralisation and infant mortality rate: The Colombian case," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(9), pages 1426-1434.
    20. Alexandre Delamou & Fassou Mathias Grovogui & Lior Miller & Amy Nye & Mamadi Kourouma & Delphin Kolié & Tohanizé Goumou & Thomas J Bossert, 2023. "Implementation research protocol on the national community health policy in Guinea: A sequential mixed-methods study using a decision space approach," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(1), pages 1-20, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jadmsc:v:15:y:2025:i:5:p:187-:d:1659536. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.