Democracy Decentralisation And Deficits In Latin America

What is the impact of political decentralisation in Latin America? This book considers the problems raised by political decentralisation in the region and identifies the challenges ahead. Political decentralisation tends to devolve a certain amount ...

Fiscal institutions, fiscal performance, electoral institutions, budget, decentralisation, macroeconomic stability, federalism, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Germany, Mexico, Portugal, Bolivia.

Annotation This report examines the impact of decentralization and its effect on the efficiency of public services, on equity, and on macroeconomic stability.

World Bank Discussion Paper No. 359. Oil and energy markets have experienced dramatic changes over the past two decades--steep price increases in the 1970s and 1980s followed by a decrease in 1986 and large declines in demand in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. But despite considerable uncertainty about future developments in the world oil market, this paper finds that demand is set to rise in all main regions, particularly in developing countries, led by increasing incomes, population, industrialization, investment, and trade. This study examines the growth in demand for eight major oil products for 37 developing countries over the 1971-93 period, analyzing the relationships and changes over time for income, population, and demand for energy and oil products for each country. It also examines some of the important phenomena that affect oil demand and calculates income and price elasticities for each product in all countries.

This volume studies the relation of decentralization to democratization at both intermediate and local levels and analyzes how decentralization is transforming the relationship between the state and civil society.

Much of the scholarly and professional literature on development focuses either on the ‘macro’ level of national policies and politics or on the ‘micro’ level of devel- ment projects and household or community socio-economic dynamics. By contrast, this collection pitches itself at the ‘meso’ level with a comparative exploration of the ways in which local institutions – municipalities, local governments, city authorities, civil society networks and others – have demanded, and taken on, a greater role in planning and managing development in the Latin American region. The book’s rich empirical studies reveal that local institutions have engaged upwards, with central authorities, to shape their policy and resource environments and in turn, been pressured from ‘below’ by local actors contesting the ways in which the structures and processes of local governance are framed. The examples covered in this volume range from global cities, such as Mexico and Santiago, to remote rural areas of the Bolivian and Brazilian Amazon. As a result the book provides a deep understanding of the diversity and complexity of local governance and local development in Latin America, while avoiding the stereotyped claims about the impact of globalisation or the potential benefits of decentralisation, as frequently stated in less empirically grounded analysis.

The resurgence of the Left in Latin America over the past decade has been so notable that it has been called “the Pink Tide.” In recent years, regimes with leftist leaders have risen to power in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Uruguay, and Venezuela. What does this trend portend for the deepening of democracy in the region? Benjamin Goldfrank has been studying the development of participatory democracy in Latin America for many years, and this book represents the culmination of his empirical investigations in Brazil, Uruguay, and Venezuela. In order to understand why participatory democracy has succeeded better in some countries than in others, he examines the efforts in urban areas that have been undertaken in the cities of Porto Alegre, Montevideo, and Caracas. His findings suggest that success is related, most crucially, to how nationally centralized political authority is and how strongly institutionalized the opposition parties are in the local arenas.

Analyzes the economic, political, and social dimensions of changes in Latin America toward more open economies and more democratic governance.