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How close is your government to its people? Worldwide indicators on localization and decentralization

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  • Ivanyna, Maksym
  • Shah, Anwar

Abstract

This paper is intended to provide an assessment of the impact of the silent revolution (decentralization reforms) of the last three decades on moving governments closer to people to establish fair, accountable, incorruptible and responsive governance. To accomplish this, a unique data set is constructed for 182 countries by compiling data from a wide variety of sources to examine success toward decentralized decision making across the globe. An important feature of this data set is that, for comparative purposes, it measures government decision making at the local level rather than at the sub-national levels used in the existing literature. The data are used to rank countries on political, fiscal and administrative dimensions of decentralization and localization. These sub-indexes are aggregated and adjusted for heterogeneity to develop an overall ranking of countries on the closeness of their government to the people. The resulting index is associated with higher level of human development and lower level of corruption, and thus provides a useful explanation of the Arab Spring and other recent political movements and waves of dissatisfaction with governance around the world.

Suggested Citation

  • Ivanyna, Maksym & Shah, Anwar, 2013. "How close is your government to its people? Worldwide indicators on localization and decentralization," Economics Discussion Papers 2013-38, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:201338
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Maksym Ivanyna & Anwar Shah, 2011. "Citizen-centric Governance Indicators: Measuring and Monitoring Governance by Listening to the People," CESifo Forum, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 12(01), pages 59-71, March.
    2. Anwar Shah, 2006. "Local Governance in Developing Countries," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 7192, December.
    3. Fan, C. Simon & Lin, Chen & Treisman, Daniel, 2009. "Political decentralization and corruption: Evidence from around the world," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(1-2), pages 14-34, February.
    4. Anwar Shah, 2008. "Macro Federalism and Local Finance," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6453, December.
    5. Maksym Ivanyna & Anwar Shah, 2011. "Decentralization and Corruption: New Cross-Country Evidence," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 29(2), pages 344-362, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    localization; decentralization; home rule; fiscal autonomy; political autonomy; administrative autonomy; local governance; government accountability; trust in government; good governance; responsive; accountable and fair governance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H10 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - General
    • H11 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Structure and Scope of Government
    • H83 - Public Economics - - Miscellaneous Issues - - - Public Administration
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General

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