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Decentralization and Local Governance in MENA : A Survey of Policies, Institutions, and PracticesEntering the 21st century, the 1999-2000 World Development Report (WDR), identifies two main forces that are shaping the world in which development policy is being defined and implemented: (i) globalization, the increasing worldwide integration of private sector interaction and commercial relationships; and (ii) localization, a process of devolving fiscal and administrative roles and responsibilities from central to sub-national tiers of government. It goes on to note that these global-private and local-public pressures are not only reinforcing, but also challenging traditional paradigms and forms of intergovernmental systems. Political decentralization, often associated with pluralistic politics and representative government, aims to give citizens more say in public policy and decision-making. Its advocates assume that decisions made with greater participation will be better informed and more relevant to diverse interests in society than those made only by national political authorities. The concept implies that the selection of representatives from local electoral jurisdictions allows citizens to know better their political representatives and allows elected officials to know better the needs and desires of their constituents. Administrative decentralization aims to redistribute authority, responsibility and financial resources for providing public services among different levels of government. It typically takes three forms: de-concentration, delegation and devolution. Fiscal decentralization vests greater autonomy and authority with local governments in matters of fiscal importance, empowering local governments to generate their own revenues, through taxes and user charges, as well as determining their expenditure priorities based on a clear assignment of functions and responsibilities. Over the last two decades, it has been estimated that more than 100 countries, most of them in the developing world, have experimented with various forms of decentralization.
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Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia : Issues in Urban and Municipal DevelopmentThe present study examines the
 challenges facing municipal governments in FYR Macedonia.
 The introductory chapter provides some further context for
 these developments, in terms of the challenges they pose
 for urban areas and their governments. Chapter Two examines
 issues for financial management of municipalities under the
 decentralized regime, and the attendant need for improving
 local government capacity. The third chapter highlights
 questions in the area of communal services, where municipal
 governments retain overall provision and supervisory
 responsibilities of the local public enterprises. The fourth
 chapter focuses on urban planning and land management, an
 area critical to the efficient functioning of cities and for
 which municipalities have acquired new obligations. The
 approach of the report is to assemble existing data from
 many available studies, both by the World Bank and by other
 sources, and information obtained from interviews in the
 country to articulate ideas and recommendations for
 consideration by the Government elected in July 2006, by
 municipal governments, and by other stakeholders.
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Intergovernmental Reforms in the
 Russian Federation : One Step Forward, Two Steps Back?Intergovernmental reforms in the Russian
 Federation: one step forward, two steps back? Is a critical
 analysis of Russia's intergovernmental reform program
 which began in the early 1990s. It assesses the effects of a
 broad range of reforms adopted over two tumultuous decades
 during which the Russian Federation experienced significant,
 and at times drastic, political regime changes, coupled with
 a similarly turbulent economic growth trajectory. This
 environment reshaped intergovernmental relations, requiring
 certain fiscal responsibilities to be delegated to the
 sub-national levels. These reforms, however, were not always
 accompanied by the kinds of administrative and political
 structures required to support a truly devolved system of
 intergovernmental fiscal relations. As this study indicates,
 in recent years there has been a tendency to recentralize
 some powers that had been granted to sub-national
 governments under earlier reforms, a trend that may call
 into question the future of fiscal decentralization in the
 federation. Moreover, the current global economic downturn
 has had a significant effect on Russia' economic
 growth, largely because of the country's overdependence
 on oil, gas, and mineral exports. It is likely that in the
 present economic climate the political regime will be
 inclined to further limit sub-national autonomy.