Assessing the Impact of Decentralization on Governance: A Comparative Methodological Approach and Application to Tunisia

The relationship between decentralization and governance has not been adquately explored in the literature. Many past studies have failed to assess fully the impact of decentralization because of the lack of a set of independent, comparative indicators of the quality of decentralization being implemented in a given country. The authors adopt the working hypothesis that decentralization, both as a process and as an end state in terms of organization and operations, is closely related to the quality of governance in developing countries. In order to provide an empirical basis for a comparative assessment, the authors have developed a model based on the scope, intensity and commitment to decentralization in a country. Each of these concepts is operationalized in terms of a set of empirically measurable variables. The method is then applied to the case of Tunisia where decentralization has taken two forms: deconcentration within the context of the central ministries, and delegation and deconcentration in the context of the territorial administration. Decentralization in Tunisia is shown to have an important relationship to the quality of governance in that country. The methodology developed here for the analysis of the quality of decentralization appears to be worth pursuing cross-nationally. Bibliogr., sum.