Centralization And Decentralization

Globalization has brought dramatic changes to the character and functions of education in most countries around the world. However, the impact of globalization on schools and universities is not uniform. One public-policy strategy that has been widely adopted is decentralization; but there is no consensus on whether centralization or decentralization is more effective to improve organization and management in education. This book is contextualized in the literature on globalization, and examines how policies of decentralization have affected the running of education in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Shanghai, Singapore, Macau and Mainland China. It analyzes the strategies that the governments of the selected societies have adopted in reforming the structure of education systems, mobilizing different forces to create more educational opportunities, and devising new measures to assure quality in the education sector.

The Government of Canada has made efforts in recent years to achieve a greater degree of managerial deregulation and administrative decentralization. This study examines these efforts in light of the evolution of the executive-bureaucratic arena over the three decades since 1960, the theoretical issues involved in organization design and behaviour, and the practical context of administrative reform.

"After five years of groundbreaking research, Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom share some gripping stories. The Starfish and the Spider argues that organizations fall into two categories: traditional "spiders," which have a rigid hierarchy and top-down leadership, and revolutionary "starfish," which rely on the power of peer relationships. This book explores what happens when starfish take on spiders (such as the music industry vs. Napster, Kazaa, and the P2P services that followed). It reveals how established companies and institutions, from IBM to Intuit to the U.S. government, are also learning how to incorporate starfish principles to achieve success."--BOOK JACKET.

This study considers a decentralized economic policy and to what extent a centralization of economic policy would seem justified on a national and international level.

The Case for Decentralized Federalism brings together an array of experts around one key idea: decentralized federalism as the best political arrangement for a diverse nation like Canada, Edited by Ruth Hubbard and Gilles Paquet, this book argues that decentralized federalism can most effectively address Canada's regional differences and cultural diversity by dividing the work of public governing among different levels of government, allowing each to address the needs and aspiration of its citizens. With contributions from Thomas J Courchene, Ian Peach, Gerard Belanger, Hugh D. Segal, Francois Rocher, Marie-Christine Gilbert, Ruth Hubbard and Gilles Paquet, this book presents various arguments for decentralized federalism that show how a variety of issues nagging Canada today---nation-building, subsidiarity, competition, innovation---might be resolved through decentralized federalism. For the case against decentralization, look for The Case for Centralized Federalism edited by Gordon DiGiacomo and Maryantonett Flumian, also published by the University of Ottawa Press.