No abstract

No abstract

A critical issue in decentralisation is the assignment of services to sub-national governments. This article examines normative arguments, legislated models and actual experiences of Sub-Saharan service assignment in two key service sectors, primary health care and rural roads, each of which is a common target for decentralisation efforts and has substantially different characteristics. In analysing intergovernmental provision and production arrangements and the way in which different service components are organised in these sectors, it is apparent that legislated models of decentralisation are largely informed by normative theory. In both sectors, however, a disjoint is evident between what governments decentralise in a formal sense (i.e. in the law) and what they decentralise in an actual sense. This disjoint can be partially explained by normative arguments about the limits to decentralisation, for example, spillovers and economies of scale, but also result from the influence of factors such as intergovernmental and bureaucratic politics, local level capacity constraints and particular production issues associated with each service.

No abstract

A fundamental restructuring of intergovernmental relations involving decentralisation and expanded autonomy for provincial and local governments is under way in Indonesia. This paper explores the intergovernmental financial system that preceded the new General Allocation Fund (DAU), with particular attention to the old Inpres development grants. Like Inpres, the DAU attempts to address national development objectives, and can be seen as a logical consequence of reform efforts in intergovernmental finance that began long before the demise of the New Order government in 1998. The use of earmarked Inpres grants enabled the central government to ensure that key sectors such as roads, public health and education received adequate attention throughout Indonesia's diverse regions. Local governments' experience with Inpres should help in implementation of the DAU, yet Law 25/1999—which restructures fiscal relations between the various levels of government—may actually have increased local reliance on the central government.