of constitutional reforms, decentralization is largely concentrated at the state tier (sub-national governments at this level concentrated 64.5% of public revenues). Japan and the Republic of Korea have empowered sub-national governments through processes of administrative reform (local government revenues amount to 49.2% of national budget in Japan and 42.1% in Korea). China is one of the most decentralized countries at the administrative and financial levels: subnational governments manage 85% and 53.3% of public expenditures and revenues, respectively. In Malaysia, a federal state, local revenues are particularly low (just 3.4% of national budget) if compared to other federal countries, mostly due to an inconsistent history of decentralization. Nepal, after the adoption of the new constitution that recognize local governments (September 2015), is carrying out in 2017 the first local governments elections in 19 years. Latin America is now reaping the benefits of a 30-year-long wave of decentralization that has built on the democratization of participatory processes at the local level. Positive spill-overs of this empowerment of citizen participation have slowly and steadily elicited a transfer of both policy competences and financial capabilities from the central to the local level of government. This process, however, varies significantly from one country to another. In federal countries – Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico – sub-national governments account for between 56% and 43% of total national revenues, but only between 22% and 7.5% when only municipalities are taken into consideration. In unitary countries, the ratio between local and national government revenues range from 38% in Colombia to 4%-5% in Central America, where most states are still largely centralized (e.g., in Costa Rica and Guatemala, even though the ratio jumps to 10.2% in El Salvador and 11.8% in Honduras). Other unitary countries in Latin America rank halfway these extremes, e.g., 18.8% in Peru or 14% in Chile, where decentralization in the meantime has steadily slowed down to a halt. In Middle East and West Asia, Turkey’s municipalities have been granted significant competences for public services and local development. Fiscal decentralization, however, is still limited. Municipalities account for 10.7% of total national expenditures and receive 10.8% of total public revenues. In other countries of the region, decentralization processes are either limited or stalled. In Jordan, for example, local governments access 6.1% of total national revenues and account for 5.8% of total public expenditures. Finally, decentralization trends around the world, beyond regional contexts, have certainly strengthened the international profile of local and regional governments, boosting their ability to engage in global networks, pool resources and adopt a shared vision when facing common challenges and looking for common solutions.
Les passants devant l’entrée du HLPF en 2016, à New York. (photo: UNDP/Flickr.com)
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