Fiscal Decentralisation

Kenya and South Africa have adopted fiscal decentralisation models in their Constitutions. Though Kenya’s system is at its nascent stages and its implementation is slowly progressing, South Africa has, to a great extent, successfully implemented its system since 1996. South Africa leads the African continent in fiscal decentralisation, and is therefore of significant comparative value while analysing the opportunities and limitations of the Kenyan system. The comparative analysis is based on the pillars of effective fiscal decentralisation. Although both systems adhere to the pillars, South Africa has three spheres of devolution whereas Kenya has two. This article establishes that the Kenyan decentralisation system is weaker in a few respects. First, it devolves minor functions to the County Governments, leaving the bulk of the health and education expenditures under the control of the National Government (NG). Second, it devolves taxation powers to County Governments for taxes whic...

Decentralization is a concept well professed by political elites in Ghana yet there has been inadequate political will to transfer actual power, authority and resources to the district assemblies. Ghana’s current decentralization was introduced in 1988 with a mesmeric mantra of ‘power to the people’, and the concept is now over two and half decades old. This paper examines the extent to which local government reform through decentralization has brought about any meaningful changed relationship between central and local governments in Ghana. This work adopts a retrospective analysis of policy documents and a critical stage review of the relevant literature on the theoretical suppositions and practical experience of decentralization practice. The appointment of assembly heads in Ghana makes the relationship a principal-agent typology. Decentralization is at best a theoretical ramification but its actual practice has been just minimal. The study provides a ‘walk-the-talk’ model that requires political will to address the key challenges of decentralization in Ghana

Annotation
After regaining the independence, Georgia had to undertake multiple systemic changes during the transformation period. The process has lasted more than 25 year by now with some success. One of the most complicated dimensions turned out to be the administrative-territorial reform. The initial hindrance in it was declaration of self-proclaimed states by the separatist forces in the regions of Georgia, and later, after five-day Russia-Georgia war, recognition of these regions as states by Russian Federation in 2008.
Current Constitution of Georgia (1995) determined that “state-territorial arrangement of Georgia will be stipulated by the constitutional Law based on the principle of separation of powers after regaining the jurisdiction by Georgia on whole territory of the country (art.2, para 3.).
After Russian-Georgian war in 2008, Russian Federation expanded territory beyond previous separatist regions by additionally occupying Akhalgori Municipality and Azhara Municipality. This situation made Constitutional provision even more strict and complicated, though it is impossible to execute statehood without territorial arrangement.
After recuperating independence, the steps have been made toward decentralization and deconcentration of powers. On different stages the changes made were contradictory. Though in 2004, after ratifying “European Charter on Local Self-Governance” the process of decentralization gained clearer framework for development. Of course this fact can’t prevent time waste but can ensure that the process initiated can’t be reversed.
The LSG reform based on decentralization and deconcentration concepts is still active and includes regional development issues as well. The paper addresses the issue of regionalization policy and tries to analyze the reasons for delays to introduce regional governance one of which is the lack of hereditary principle when there is next power shift in the country and starting all over again.
The lack of theoretical elaboration of these issues and different understanding of region and regionalization is of crucial importance for smoother process. The main supposition is to equal the regionalization with separatism, which is enforced by the forces fighting for the federalization of Georgia as they are trying to implement it through regionalization. The Paper focuses on rich European experience to implement regionalization that can be implemented both in unitary as well as federal states.
The author supports establishment of Development Regions which based on European regionalization concept can give country opportunities to explore and use the unexplored capacities of economic growth and development. For this purpose the importance of real local self-governance is underscored for the success of regionalization. The issues are discussed in historic and logical order. The story of latest “Code on LSG” is been analyzed, that hugely influenced its final content and first results of the Code implementation is discussed.
The author supports development of two-level self-government but on local, not regional level. But main focus should be ensuring current LSG units with proper financial resources to its own competences and for this purpose, creation of sustainable financial-economic basis for local authorities and ceasing full dependence on central authorities as it is up to date.
The vision for establishment of Development Regions is discussed in the prism of current Association with European Union which should make Regional Development Strategy from formal paper into real development tool through its Action Plan. The Paper contains conclusions and recommendations.

The phrase decentralization leads to development means the decentralized government leads the particular country towards growth in terms of economic conditions, foreign relations, good health condition of its people, high literacy rates, strong democracy, transparent political system, more accountability of the public administration, etc.

the book has the floolowing parts and chapters
PART I LAND .............................................................. 11
Land administration: law, policy, practice ........................... 11
Managing land use conflicts at the rural- urban interface ...28
PART II HOUSING AND TRANSPORT...................... 45
Appraisal of housing typologies in Addis Ababa .................. 45
The impact of multi-nucleated city morphology on
transport in Addis Ababa............................................... 53
PART III FISCAL DECENTRALISATION ................. 67
Regulating sub national borrowing ...................................... 67
Local Government finance: Realities and prospects in
Addis Ababa ................................................................. 97
PART IV ENVIRONMENT ........................................ 119
Environmental impacts of rapid urbanisation on
Ethiopia’s cities .......................................................... 119
Solid waste management: Practice and economic
potential in Addis-Ababa............................................. 132
PART V RURAL URBAN LINKAGES....................... 147
URBAN rural dynamics: A comparative study between
Ethiopia and Tanzania ................................................. 147
Rural urban linkages in Ethiopia, reflections and
opportunities .............................................................. 162
PART VI THE WAY FORWARD............................... 179
The role of tourism in urban renewal: Prospects and
opportunities for Addis Ababa ..................................... 179
Microfinance for urban development ................................. 189
Can city development strategies boost equitable growth?
An analysis of Awassa ................................................ 213
CONCLUSIONS .........................................................

http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/188401468053415165/Local-service-delivery-in-Nepal

The effectiveness of public service delivery depends in large part on the capability, resources and inputs, and the motivation of frontline service providers at the local level. In Nepal a combination of de-concentrated line agencies and local bodies at the district, municipal, and village level provides inputs which are translated into delivery of service outputs and outcomes. Yet the relationships between line agencies and local bodies in service delivery are not well understood. The purpose of this report is to examine in detail the current dynamics of frontline service delivery to identify institutional limitations and present approaches to addressing them. This study seeks to map out the dynamics of service delivery at the local level through analysis of the institutional framework and actual practices in service delivery in 14 jurisdictions in the two districts of Dhankuta and Dhanusa. The study includes a detailed review of the provision of local roads networks and primary and lower secondary education. In this context, the report is divided into four parts: part one gives introduction; part two presents institutional framework for local service delivery; part three focuses on sub-national service delivery: local roads and primary education; and part four presents conclusions and recommendations to improve frontline service delivery.

An assessment of the potential for fiscal decentralization in Albania and examination of the necessary changes in the expenditure assignments, revenue sources, intergovernmental transfers and borrowing policies to provide for more fiscal autonomy of the local governments.

Kenya and South Africa have adopted fiscal decentralisation models in their Constitutions. Though Kenya's system is at its nascent stages and its implementation is slowly progressing, South Africa has, to a great extent, successfully implemented its system since 1996. South Africa leads the African continent in fiscal decentralisation, and is therefore of significant comparative value while analysing the opportunities and limitations of the Kenyan system. The comparative analysis is based on the pillars of effective fiscal decentralisation. Although both systems adhere to the pillars, South Africa has three spheres of devolution whereas Kenya has two. This article establishes that the Kenyan decentralisation system is weaker in a few respects. First, it devolves minor functions to the County Governments, leaving the bulk of the health and education expenditures under the control of the National Government (NG). Second, it devolves taxation powers to County Governments for taxes which, under the previous local authorities system, have historically been low yield and hard to collect. Third, it insists on National Government guarantees, which may be an incentive for irresponsible borrowing by County Governments. However, the Kenyan system is stronger in two respects. First, it creates an equalisation fund, with decisions on amounts being made by Parliament in consultation with the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA). This insulates the system from skewed allocations meant to benefit certain areas over others. Second, the Kenyan system has more implementation supervision institutions, including the CRA, the Constitutional Implementation Commission (CIC) and the Transition Authority (TA). The only such body in South Africa is the Financial and Fiscal Commission (FFC), playing a supervisory role in devolution of fiscal matters.

Era baru desentralisasi fiskal di Indonesia dimulai setelah reformasi 1998.  Daerah diberikan kewenangan untuk mengelola keuangannya masing-masing.  Harapannya adalah, penggunaan sumber daya yang terbatas akan efisien dan efektif serta mengurangangi ketidakseimbangan vertikal yang pada akhirnya mampu meningkatkan pelayanan publik.  Hal ini karena  Pemerintah Daerah dianggap sebagai pihak yang paling tahu akan kebutuhan masing-masing.  Namun demikian dalam pelaksanaannya timbul berbagai permasalahan seperti masalah pengelolaan belanja daerah, korupsi, fenomena daerah kaya dan daerah miskin, dan lainnya.  Permasalahan-permasalahan tersebut timbul salah satunya karena sumber daya yang dimiliki tiap daerah berbeda. Namun demikian, secara keseluruhan, pelaksanaan desentralisasi fiskal di Indonesia dapat dikatakan berhasil. Hal ini terlihat dari peringkat Human development Index dan economic growth yang didominasi daerah luar jawa. Yang artinya bahwa pembangunan sudah tidak lagi bersifat sentralistik di daerah jawa

Abandoning fiscal decision-making, redistributing and dispersing authorities provided by central government in favor of local and regional-level governance bodies is one of the widely discussed issues across the world based on the theory of “fiscal decentralization”.
Incumbent theoretical and empiric researches regarding to achieving economic growth in the light of global economic fragilities indicate that managerial allocation of public funds among central and local authorities casts significant attention in terms of optimizing economic efficiency. In the article, it is tried to introduce brief theoretical background and measurement techniques to depict empiric relationship between fiscal decentralization and economic growth. In addition to investigating empiric facts, an effort to reveal the impact of fiscal decentralization on acquiring economic growth is made. Based on the investigations conducted in the framework of the article, it becomes obvious that empirical approaches toward the issue can be differed in several aspects: the selection of different economies, the time period chosen, the economies’ level of development and the estimation methodology. However, there are few empirical studies that analyze the relationship between fiscal decentralization and economic growth, and unfortunately the evidence on this topic is inconclusive.

The imperative to restructure Nigeria's federal configuration is a decentralisation reform agenda that has risen in prominence in recent years. The demand for restructuring, with the ambiguity and sublimity with which political actors often engage the discourse, has generated strident debates. It is against this background that this study examined the multifaceted discourse on the restructuring phenomenon through the editorial framing intervention of selected national newspapers. The study adopted the qualitative research design in content analysing five national newspapers-Daily Sun, Vanguard, The Guardian, The Punch and Nigerian Tribune. The complete enumeration technique was applied in examining all editorials on restructuring found in the weekday editions of the selected newspapers published between May 1, 2017 and May 30, 2019. Findings revealed that the selected newspapers were largely uniform in projecting the restructuring discourse along the framing dimensions of problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and treatment recommendation. It was concluded that the advocacy stance of the newspapers on restructuring reflected the editorial judgment value of social proximity, but that they were mainly issue-focused and not ethnically fixated. The study's contributions to media framing literature and empirical research on the restructuring debate in Nigeria were also established.

The amalgamation of local government units to achieve some economies of scale and service delivery efficiencies by local governments has been a widespread practice over the past several decades. It has been widely promoted by the international donor community and considerable funding and technical assistance has been provided by the donors for this purpose. It is only within the past decade that there has been a substantial amount of research on the impact of the amalgamation process on local governments from an expenditure and service delivery perspective. Overall, this research has not validated amalgamation as an effective means to achieve the expected outcomes of economy and efficiency. Ukraine began a long-delayed decentralization process in 2015 with amalgamation based on a voluntary approach as well as emphasis on improving the fiscal resources of the amalgamated units. This research paper provides a unique opportunity to measure the impact of these approaches over a five-year period and determine to what extent these policies succeeded in improving the local government fiscal situation. The analysis indicates that voluntary amalgamation did not achieve the expected level of merging and that, ultimately, the government resorted to mandatory merging of the units prior to holding local government elections. In addition, the fiscal improvements that were anticipated by the amalgamated units were not demonstrated by the statistical analysis of the financial data and no significant improvement in local government finances appears to have been realized through the application of a voluntary merging approach.

Anayasal İktisat Teorisi devletin güç ve yetkilerinin nasıl sınırlandırılabileceğini ve nasıl sınırlandırılması gerektiğini incelemektedir. Bu kapsamda Anayasal iktisatçılar tarafından, hazırlanacak olan ekonomik anayasa ile devletin vergilendirme yetkisinin belli bir kısmının yerel yönetimlere devredilmesi gerektiği savunulmaktadır. Çalışma, üniter ve federal yapılı devletlerde vergilendirme yetkisinin yerel yönetimlere devrini ve yerel mali özerklik olgusunu olumlu ve olumsuz yönleriyle objektif bir bakış açısıyla incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır.

The constitutional economics theory examines how government's power and authority could be limited and how should be limited. In this context, through the instrument of economic constitution, it is argued by constitutional economists that, a certain part of government's tax-raising power should be transferred to local governments. This study aims to analyse the transfer of governments' tax-raising powers to local governments in unitary and federal states and to research the local fiscal autonomy phenomenon in its positive and negative aspects from an objective point of view.

This study is a quantitative approach to investigate the implications of the divide between expenditure and revenue decentralization on development and finance indicators. Prevailing literature does not yield unambiguous results on the effects of fiscal decentralization. So far, the empirical literature has not covered the connections of the gap in decentralization. Therefore, the empirical part of this study scrutinizes the interactions of different decentralization indicators and estimators for public debt, corruption, inequality and education spending. We set up a model with data from 56 countries over a period from 2001 to 2012 and run a robust regression analysis by sequentially introducing multiple decentralization measures. The regression output offers conclusive results for the implications of the fiscal gap and the indicator for inequality. We find evidence for lower inequality with a closer match between expenditure and revenue decentralization. The fiscal gap does not show statistically significant influence on other indicators. Yet, we can find various connections between the endogenous variables and alternative measures in decentralization.

The paper focused on the analysis of the influence of fiscal decentralization (FD) on the performance of County governments in Kenya during the transitionary period from a central to a decentralised governance system (2013-2018). The quest for fiscal decentralisation has taken center stage in the past three decades in many parts of the word including Latin America, Asian countries, Africa and throughout the formally planned economies. The study was prompted by conflicting findings from previous empirical studies in both developed and the developing countries. Three indicators of fiscal decentralisation were defined and used in the study. These are the ratio of county governments' funds received from the National Government and local revenue collections. The other is transfer grants, defined as both conditional and unconditional funds received from both national government and development partners. Multiple regression analysis and correlation analysis were used to estimate the parameters of the model. The study was descriptive and used panel data to offer a comprehensive profile of the key variables identified in the conceptual framework. The unit of analysis was the County government with all the 47 counties forming the population of study. The results reveal that 27.43% of variations in the performance of County Governments are explained by the variables in the model and that equitable share (UB) has the most significant influence. From the several tests applied, the prediction model was confirmed as appropriate.

The aim of the paper is to describe the fiscal decentralization in Slovakia. Paper mainly focuses and analyzes the revenue side of budgets of municipalities and Self-Governing region, where are significant changes. These changes relate to the determination of the redistribution coefficient the only one shared tax, the amount of local taxes and fees and the impact of the global financial crisis on local government budget.

One of the arguments in defense of local governments hinges on their ability to deliver public goods better because of their proximity to demand. Local governments operate on the basis of the concept of decentralization connoting the transfer of some level of formal responsibility, authority and/or resources to smaller, lower units of government in the form of counties, districts, regions or states. Decentralization takes different forms including deconcentration, devolution, delegation and privatization. The existing body of literature on decentralization and service delivery indicates that it can proffer considerable advantages although there is limited empirical evidence of positive outcomes. For example through increasing effectiveness in mobilization and allocative efficiency of resources, deepening citizen participation, and improving accountability mechanisms. This paper examines the framework for service delivery in the health sector in Kenya within the context of the country’s newly introduced devolved system of government. It examines three prerogatives of County Governments and their bearing on accountability for delivery of services in the health sector - i) resource mobilization, distribution and administration, ii) decision making, and iii) political accountability. The paper argues that devolution of the health function in Kenya faces challenges of coordination between the national and county governments which have left an amorphous sense of responsibility for service delivery. The paper concludes that devolution as is practiced in the health sector in Kenya involves a partial transfer of responsibility for service delivery to county governments that remits unbalanced accountability relations that potentially undermine the opportunities it creates or promises. It essentially splits up decision making capacity and resource management authority that makes it difficult for county governments to effectively deliver health care services but leaves accountability squarely on county governments.

The Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) have emerged as instruments of local government since 1992 with the passage of the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act in India. In Telangana, the state government in the recent period has enacted State Panchayat Raj Act and constituted its first State Finance Commission (SFC). This article is a part of a larger study conducted in the context of the constitution of the first SFC. The article reveals that the own revenue of panchayats is quite low and transfer from the state and central governments constitute two key sources of these bodies. However, these bodies have faced various internal and external challenges while imposing and implementing taxes and fees to augment their sources of revenues. It is on this reality that this article suggests for the devolution of more taxes to PRIs by the SFC for strengthening their revenues and sharing at least 10% of the state's revenue to meet service delivery functions.

A Two-way Causality Between Local Government Tax Revenue and Economic Growth Variables on the Basis of Fiscal Decentralization and Fiscal Equalization: Some Fiscal Autonomy Analyses for the Selected OECD Countries

This study examines the existence and direction of the panel causality between different fiscal decentralization and economic growth variables. The well-known theoretical and empirical literature has assumed that the fiscal decentralization process somehow causes economic growth, but has mostly ignored the possibility of economic growth can cause and change the decentralization levels as well. With its different point of interest, methodology and samples; the study applies the Bootstrap Panel Granger Causality Test to the data from 18 countries between 1991-2015 and finds that both fiscal decentralization and economic growth causes each other in different countries with relatively significant levels. According to the results, the tested variables of fiscal decentralization cause GDP and GDP per capita growth in Canada, France and Japan while in Hungary, Poland and Australia "vice versa" effect happens. Further to that, some fiscal policy assessments are also done as a conclusion for the countries (like Turkey) which fiscal decentralization has no or less effect in either way.

This paper reviews how well fiscal decentralization has been implemented and how successful these projects have been in achieving a new level of local government financial capacity and service delivery. It reviews the research literature that has assessed the success and failure rates of fiscal decentralization in a global context. Overall, the levels of success have not been encouraging with fiscal decentralization having a positive impact. A case study of how fiscal decentralization has been implemented in Albania provides insights into the common mistakes that have been made in implementing fiscal decentralization projects. Professor Roy Bahl in a 1999 paper titled " Implementation Rules for Fiscal Decentralization " defined the basic approach to implementing fiscal decentralization and many of these rules have been the guiding principles for implementing fiscal decentralization. This paper addresses the deficiencies in these rules based on the experiences over the past decades and formulates new rules for implementing fiscal decentralization. It then assesses the old and new rules against the case study of Albania as a means of predicting if the fiscal decentralization will succeed. The paper concludes that new and original thinking about the implementation rules need to be formulated and encourages more dialogue and discussion among researchers and practitioners engaged in implementing fiscal decentralization.

Përkthyes për gjuhën shqipe për librin 'Decentralizimi Fiskal dhe Transferimi i Granteve Në Vendet në Tranzicion: Një Perspektivë Kritike' 2005 i shkruar nga Ņeljko Ńević, Universiteti i Greenwich, Mbretëria e Bashkuar e Britanisë së Madhe. Ky libër është financuar nga një grant i Iniciativës për Reforma të Qeverisjes Vendore dhe të Shërbimit Publik, Instituti i Shoqërisë së Hapur, Budapest, Hungari.
Titulli i origjinalit: 'Fiscal Decentralisation and Grant Transfers In Transition Countries: A Critcal Perspective'

The task of restructuring public finance substantially depends on streamlining the multiple channels of resource flow from the Union to the local governments through the states. In the legal framework the processes of fiscal devolution from States to the Panchayat Raj Institutions (PRIs) and Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) are taking place through State Finance Commissions. Assets are being either created or transferred to these bodies. The role now for the 13th Finance Commission is to act as the path breaker in creating an enabling environment for fiscal decentralisation at the sub-state level. Since it is not mandatory that the transfer of funds to the PRIs and ULBs should only be in the form of grants, this article suggests, that local governments should be considered to get the share from the central divisible pool along with the states. This would be over and above the fiscal devolution recommended to the states to correct vertical imbalance.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is an exceptional case for liberal debate over decentralization. The political and legal order created by the international community in Dayton, Ohio (1995) resulted in a country divided into two parts, with one district. Half of the country, called the entity of Republika Srpska, is extremely centralized with only a small percent of local (municipality) political power. The other half, the entity of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is extremely decentralized and consists of ten cantons with ten cantonal prime ministers and more than one hundred cantonal ministers. For a long time, it was considered that this kind of political structure was the weakness of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the reason for its future disintegration as a state. But for twentythree years, Bosnia and Herzegovina has managed to exist and in the last few years more and more authors and researchers acknowledge that its complexity and decentralization are the main reason why Bosnia and Herzegovina survives as a state, satisfying the needs of political elites. On the other hand, this situation provides an opportunity for excellent insight into the differences between the centralized and decentralized part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the highlight on the state of personal and any other freedoms.

Kentsel alanların yönetimi hususunda yerel düzeydeki en yaygın örgütlenme biçimi belediyelerdir. Belediyeler, günlük yaşamın işleyişini doğrudan etkileyen pek çok görev ve sorumluluğu üstlenmiş olan idari ve mali özerk birimlerdir. Ülkemizde, nüfusun yaklaşık olarak % 94’ü belediye sınırları içerisinde ikamet etmektedir. Belediyelerin üstlenmiş oldukları görev ve sorumlulukları eksiksiz bir şekilde yerine getirebilmeleri için yeterli mali kaynaklara sahip olmaları şarttır. Bu açıdan belediyelerin etkin ve kaliteli hizmet üretebilmesi, bu idarelerin mali özerkliğe sahip olması ile yakından ilgilidir. Mali özerklik, belediyelerin kendi öz gelir kaynaklarına sahip olmasını ve bu kaynakları başka bir yönetim biriminin müdahalesi olmaksızın kurumun amaçları doğrultusunda kullanabilmesini ifade etmektedir. Belediyelerde mali özerklik düzeyinin tespitine yönelik pek çok yöntem bulunmaktadır. Bu yöntemler içerisinde en yaygın olanı, yerel öz gelir oranının tespit edilmesidir. Bu çalışmanın temel amacı, 2014-2017 yıllarını kapsayan dönemde Tekirdağ Büyükşehir Belediyesinin mali özerklik düzeyini tespit etmektir. Yapılan değerlendirmelerde yerel öz gelir oranının ortalama olarak % 16,35 olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Söz konusu oran Türkiye ortalamasının da oldukça altındadır. Bu çerçevede Tekirdağ Büyükşehir Belediyesinin mali açıdan özerk olmadığı ve büyük ölçüde merkezi yönetimden gelen yardımlara bağımlı olduğu söylenebilmektedir.

Öz: Kamu yönetiminde hem merkezi boyutta hem de yerel boyutta reform yapılması gerektiği birçok plan, program, rapor ve kanun tasarısında ifade edilmektedir. Ancak çalışmalarda yerel yönetimlerin mali yapılarının düzenlenmesi konusu genellikle göz ardı edilmiş veya ikinci planda kalmıştır. Bir diğer ifadeyle Türkiye"de yerel finansman yöntemlerine dair çalışmalar yerel yönetim reformunun gecikmiş bir parçası ve idari reform sürecinin en zayıf halkası olmuştur. Yerel yönetimlerin ve özellikle yerel düzeyde en büyük görev ve sorumluluğunu üstlenen belediyelerin, öz gelirleri ile (özellikle vergiler) harcamaları arasında ciddi bir tutarsızlık bulunmaktadır. Bu çalışmada; söz konusu tutarsızlığın acilen ele alınması gereken bir konu olduğunu daha iyi anlama adına kurumsal bazı raporlar, planlar ve programlar incelenmiştir. Yapılan kurumsal çalışmaların neredeyse hepsinde, yerel yönetimlerin ve özellikle belediyelerin içinde bulunduğu sorunların çözümü açısından mali özerkliğin önemli olduğu vurgusu yapılmıştır. Ayrıca ilgili kurumsal çalışmalarda ortaya konulan amaç ve hedeflerin büyük kısmına ulaşılamadığı sonucuna varılmıştır.

Anahtar Kelimeler: Yerel yönetim, belediye, mali özerklik, öz gelir, vergi

Abstract: The need to reform public administration, both at national and local levels, is expressed in many plans, programs, reports and draft laws. However, the subject of regulation of financial structures of local governments has generally been ignored or has remained secondary in the studies. In other words, studies on the local financing methods in Turkey has been a delayed part of local government reforms and the weakest link in the process of administrative reforms. There is a significant inconsistency between the expenditures and self-revenues (especially tax revenues) of local governments and especially municipalities, which have the greatest duties and responsibilities at the local level. In this study, some institutional reports, plans and programs are examined in order to better understand the urgent need for correction of the mentioned inconsistency. In almost all of the institutional studies, the importance of fiscal autonomy is emphasized for the solution of the problems of local governments, and municipalities in particular. In addition, this study concludes that most of the stated objectives and goals in the related institutional studies have not been reached.

Fiscal decentralization which has been doing since 2001 brought massive transformation for the governance of the public finance in Indonesia. This research aimed to observe the effect of fiscal decentralization in Indonesia on provincial government size [ratio between provincial government expenditure (consolidation between province and district, city) on GDRP of province] and the effect of provincial government size on the regional economic growth. The method of the research was econometric panel data modelling for data of 26 provinces in Indonesia from 1995 to 2013. Result showed that fiscal decentralization in Indonesia had positive effect on provincial government size. Provincial government size also positively affected regional economic growth. However, this study showed that optimal size of provincial government in order to maximize regional economic growth had not or did not occur in Indonesia based on data used.

Keywords: Fiscal decentralization, provincial government size, regional economic growth

En el caso mexicano, los gobiernos municipales cuentan con una fuente de ingreso propio importante: el impuesto predial. Pero no poseen un poder tributario significativo ya que de acuerdo con el Artículo 115 Constitucional, las tasas, cuotas y tarifas de sus ingresos propios son determinadas por el congreso estatal. Esta situación ha sido una de las variables que ha contribuido a que los ayuntamientos no exploten adecuadamente sus fuentes de ingreso propio. A ello se suma el defectuoso diseño de las transferencias federales que ha incentivado la pereza fiscal municipal. También ha contribuido en gran medida la poca capacidad institucional con la que cuentan las administraciones municipales en general. En este contexto, la más reciente reforma a la Ley de Coordinación Fiscal federal contempla estímulos para que los municipios dejen de cobrar el impuesto predial y firmen un convenio para que los gobiernos estatales se hagan cargo de ello. El artículo reflexiona sobre lo cuestionable que es esta política de recentralización desde el punto de vista de la eficiencia económica y el debilitamiento político que implica para los municipios mexicanos.

We investigate the empirical relationship between decentralisation and corruption. Using a newly assembled dataset containing data for up to 174 countries, we revisit the empirical evidence and seek to explain the incon-sistent results that exist in the relevant literature. We find that not only results differ due to the use of different specifications and data but more im-portantly because previous research overlooks the relationship between dif-ferent dimensions of decentralisation. We propose an approach where more than one dimension of decentralisation enter the econometric model simul-taneously. In this context, we analyze the existence of direct and indirect effects of these aspects on corruption. Our results suggest that both fiscal decentralisation and constitutional centralization (unitarism) are simulta-neously associated to lower corruption. Furthermore, we find that certain forms of political decentralisation (local elections) worsen the positive ef-fect of constitutiona...

Despite several challenges, Ukraine is moving forward relatively quickly with its governance reform efforts. Unlike other changes sparked by the Euromaidan Revolution, subnational governance restructuring has already produced real changes in how Ukraine is governed and has led to substantial changes in people’s daily lives, especially for Ukrainians living and working in the new UTCs. That said, Ukraine’s reforms still face fundamental problems. Most importantly, there is no clear vision of the overall system of public administration—including the exact division of powers across all levels and sectors of government—given in the text of Ukraine’s constitution and national legislation. Parliament has failed to adopt a variety of constitutional amendments related to governance “right-sizing” because it has been unable to muster the super majority necessary for their passage. On some occasions, it has lacked even the simple majority needed to pass ordinary laws related to local self-government.

While politicians are engaging in the most prominent debates and decision-making, the perceptions of Ukraine’s population will be central to the success of any such political solution. What exactly are the public’s perceptions and how subject have they been to change? We address this question with data from a new survey that interviewed the same set of Ukrainian citizens three times during 2014. The chief finding is that despite the major costs of war, Ukrainians (even in the east) tend to agree strongly that Ukraine should remain undivided, with many (especially in the west) believing this is something worth fighting for. However, major divides exist on exactly what form this unity should take. Judging by public sentiment, issue-specific autonomy arrangements and some form of limited decentralization offer a much greater chance of eventually unifying the country than would sweeping reforms that invoke the term “federalism.”

Intergovermental Fiscal Transfers adalah tulisan yang membahas tentang bagaimana praktik kebijakan fiskal yang diterapkan secara umum diberbagai negara. Pasca bergesernya paradigma pemerintahan yang sentralistik menjadi desentralistik banyak negara dibelahan dunia mencoba membagi kewenangan fiskalnya. Tujuannya adalah tidak lain demi membiayaan pemerintahan lokal dalam suatu kawasan negara. Namun memang pada paraktiknya meski kewenangan administratif dan fiskal sudah disebar ke level daerah depedensi terhadap pemerintah pusat tidak memudar begitu saja. banyak daerah, mungkin mayoritas pada umumnya seperti yang terjadi di Indonesia misalnya, dalam praktik keseharian justru malah terus meminta lebih pada pemerintah pusat untuk alokasi anggarannya. Tulisan Anwar Shah mencoba mengupas tentang praktik ini terutama pada mekanisme yang berkaitan tentang transfer keuangan pemerintah pusat ke daerah. Bagaimana kemudian mekanisme yang ada dijalankan dan komparasi penerapannya diberbagai negara. Ada 4 poin penting dalam tulisan Anwar terkait kebijakan fiskal ini. Pertama bahasan dimulai dengan instrumentasi penerapan transfer yang diterakan antara pemerintah pusat dan daerah. Kedua, model-model mekanisme transfer yang dilandaskan kinerja suatu daerah. Ketiga, praktik model transfer fiskal yang diterapkan diberbagai dunia. Keempat, peraturan atau pelembagaan kewenangan penentuan transfer. Terakhir, tentang pelajaran dari kebijakan yang diterapkan di negara berkembang. Keseluruhan poin pembahasan tersebut akan diurai berdasarkan pemahaman yang saya dapat dari tulisan serta akan sedikit melakukan gambaran praktik yang ada di Indonesia.