Innovation and Risk-taking: Urban Governance in Latin America

Abstract

Abstract Decentralization in Latin America has dramatically transformed the public sector, producing a quiet revolution of popular participation in public choices at the local level. The process of decentralization has had its share of frustra tions, dangers, and false starts in the Latin American region. Fuzzy or overlap ping divisions of labor, associated threats of fiscal instability, and sustained finance for urban infrastructure still remain to be resolved in many countries. But decentralization has also produced a new generation of leaders, particularly at the local level. Several opinion polls have shown that local, elected officials were more trusted by voters and more responsive than ever to their constituents. They were also energetic, proactive, and vocal. New leaders exhibited a drive to deliver, and this made them eager consumers of new ideas and techniques. They have invented or adopted many ways to mobilize local participation, strengthen organizational capacities, and even raise local taxes, despite increasing fiows of shared revenues from central governments.