Decentralization in Latin America After 40 Years: Work in Progress; A Commentary Essay

Abstract

In the mid-1990s I wrote the first English-language book on local government in Latin America (Nickson, 1995 ). At that time there were also very few works on the subject in Spanish or Portuguese. The tardy appearance of works on such a topic reflected the long history of centralization and the long-standing neglect of academic investigation of sub-national governance in the region. The information available was so limited that in the case of some countries (notably Argentina) it was even difficult to obtain an accurate figure on something as basic as the number of municipalities. The book covered the history of local government since the late colonial period, its legal status, its structure, local service provision, local finance, electoral system, administrative organization, citizen participation, and inter-municipal relations. It also provided descriptive profiles of municipal government in 18 countries in the region. Since then there has been an explosion of publications on local governance in the region, highlighting the transformation that has taken place in the wake of a major decentralization process than had begun a decade earlier. Several studies agree that a significant leap has been made in the level of decentralization in Latin America (Bossuyt, 2013 ; Carrera, 2013 ). This period of time is sufficient to assess the impact of this transformation.