Editing Decentralization (section)

=== Market ===
Market decentralization can be done through privatization of public owned functions and businesses, as described briefly above. But it also is done through [[deregulation]], the abolition of restrictions on businesses competing with government services, for example, postal services, schools, garbage collection. Even as private companies and corporations have worked to have such services contracted out to or privatized by them, others have worked to have these turned over to non-profit organizations or associations.<ref name="Forms" />

From the 1970s to the 1990s, there was deregulation of some industries, like banking, trucking, airlines and telecommunications, which resulted generally in more competition and lower prices.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Winston |first1=Clifford |title=US industry adjustment to economic deregulation. |journal=Journal of Economic Perspectives |date=1998 |volume=12 |issue=3 |pages=89–110 |doi=10.1257/jep.12.3.89 |doi-access=free }}</ref> According to the [[Cato Institute]], an American libertarian think-tank, in some cases deregulation in some aspects of an industry were offset by increased regulation in other aspects, the electricity industry being a prime example.<ref name=TaylorDoren>Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren, [http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/shortcircuited Short-Circuited] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130617114932/http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/shortcircuited |date=2013-06-17 }}, [[The Wall Street Journal]], August 30, 2007, reprinted at [[Cato Institute]] website.</ref> For example, in banking, Cato Institute believes some deregulation allowed banks to compete across state lines, increasing [[consumer choice]], while an actual increase in regulators and regulations forced banks to make loans to individuals incapable of repaying them, leading eventually to the [[2008 financial crisis]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Calabria |first1=Mark A. |title=Did Deregulation Cause the Financial Crisis? |url=https://www.cato.org/policy-report/july/august-2009/did-deregulation-cause-financial-crisis |publisher=CATO Institute |date=2009 }}</ref>

One example of economic decentralization, which is based on a libertarian socialist model, is [[decentralized planning (economics)|decentralized economic planning]]. Decentralized planning is a type of economic system in which decision-making is distributed amongst various economic agents or localized within production agents. An example of this method in practice is in [[Kerala]], [[India]] which experimented in 1996 with [[People's Planning in Kerala|the People's Plan campaign]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.india-seminar.com/2000/485/485%20kannan.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150429183826/http://www.india-seminar.com/2000/485/485%20kannan.htm|url-status=dead|title=485 K.P.Kannan, People's planning, Kerala's dilemma|archive-date=April 29, 2015}}</ref>

Emmanuelle Auriol and Michel Benaim write about the "comparative benefits" of decentralization versus government regulation in the setting of standards. They find that while there may be a need for public regulation if public safety is at stake, private creation of standards usually is better because "regulators or 'experts' might misrepresent consumers' tastes and needs." As long as companies are averse to incompatible standards, standards will be created that satisfy needs of a modern economy.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Auriol |first1=Emmanuelle |last2=Benaim |first2=Michel |title=Standardization in Decentralized Economies |journal=American Economic Review |date=1 June 2000 |volume=90 |issue=3 |pages=550–570 |doi=10.1257/aer.90.3.550 |url=http://publications.ut-capitole.fr/2408/1/auriol_benaim.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180721051147/http://publications.ut-capitole.fr/2408/1/auriol_benaim.pdf |archive-date=2018-07-21 |url-status=live }}</ref>