Editing Decentralization (section)

=== Political ===
Political decentralization signifies a reduction in the authority of national governments over policy-making. This process is accomplished by the institution of reforms that either delegate a certain degree of meaningful decision-making autonomy to sub-national tiers of government,<ref name=":02"/> or grant citizens the right to elect lower-level officials, like local or regional representatives.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The architecture of government: rethinking political decentralization|author1-link=Daniel Treisman|last=Treisman|first=Daniel|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2007|isbn=978-0521872294}}</ref> Depending on the country, this may require [[constitution]]al or [[Statute|statutory]] reforms, the development of new [[Political party|political parties]], increased power for [[legislature]]s, the creation of local political units, and encouragement of [[advocacy groups]].<ref name=WorldBank/>

A [[Central government|national government]] may decide to decentralize its authority and responsibilities for a variety of reasons. Decentralization reforms may occur for administrative reasons, when government officials decide that certain responsibilities and decisions would be handled best at the regional or local level. In democracies, traditionally [[Conservatism|conservative]] parties include political decentralization as a directive in their platforms because rightist parties tend to advocate for a decrease in the role of central government. There is also strong evidence to support the idea that government stability increases the probability of political decentralization, since instability brought on by [[Gridlock (politics)|gridlock]] between opposing parties in legislatures often impedes a government's overall ability to enact sweeping reforms.<ref name=":02">{{Cite journal|last=Spina|first=Nicholas|date=July 2013|title=Explaining political decentralization in parliamentary democracies|journal=Comparative European Politics|volume=11|issue=4|pages=428–457|doi=10.1057/cep.2012.23|s2cid=144308683|id={{ProQuest|1365933707}}}}</ref>

The rise of regional [[Political parties of minorities|ethnic parties]] in the national politics of [[Parliamentary system|parliamentary democracies]] is also heavily associated with the implementation of decentralization reforms.<ref name=":02"/> Ethnic parties may endeavor to transfer more autonomy to their respective regions, and as a partisan strategy, ruling parties within the central government may cooperate by establishing regional assemblies in order to curb the rise of ethnic parties in national elections.<ref name=":02" /> This phenomenon famously occurred in 1999, when the United Kingdom's [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] appealed to Scottish constituents by creating a semi-autonomous [[Scottish Parliament]] in order to neutralize the threat from the increasingly popular [[Scottish National Party]] at the national level.<ref name=":02" />

In addition to increasing the administrative efficacy of government and endowing citizens with more power, there are many projected advantages to political decentralization. Individuals who take advantage of their right to elect local and regional authorities have been shown to have more positive attitudes toward politics,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rosenblatt |first1=Fernando |last2=Bidegain |first2=Germán |last3=Monestier |first3=Felipe |last4=Rodríguez |first4=Rafael Piñeiro |title=A Natural Experiment in Political Decentralization: Local Institutions and Citizens' Political Engagement in Uruguay |journal=Latin American Politics and Society |date=2015 |volume=57 |issue=2 |pages=91–110 |doi=10.1111/j.1548-2456.2015.00268.x |s2cid=154689249 }}</ref> and increased opportunities for civic decision-making through [[participatory democracy]] mechanisms like public consultations and participatory budgeting are believed to help legitimize government institutions in the eyes of marginalized groups.<ref name=":12">{{Cite journal|last=Lyon|first=Aisling|date=2015|title=Political decentralization and the strengthening of consensual, participatory local democracy in the Republic of Macedonia|journal=Democratization|volume=22|pages=157–178|doi=10.1080/13510347.2013.834331|s2cid=145166616}}</ref> Moreover, political decentralization is perceived as a valid means of protecting marginalized communities at a local level from the detrimental aspects of development and [[globalization]] driven by the state, like the degradation of local customs, codes, and beliefs.<ref name=":22">{{Cite web|last=James|first=Manor|date=1999-03-31|title=The political economy of democratic decentralization|url=http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/386101468739238037/The-political-economy-of-democratic-decentralization|language=en}}</ref> In his 2013 book, ''[[Democracy and Political Ignorance]]'', [[George Mason University]] law professor [[Ilya Somin]] argued that political decentralization in a [[Federalism|federal]] democracy confronts the widespread issue of political ignorance by allowing citizens to engage in [[foot voting]], or moving to other jurisdictions with more favorable laws.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title=Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter|last=Somin|first=Ilya|publisher=Stanford University Press|year=2013|isbn=978-0804789318|location=ProQuest}}</ref> He cites [[Great Migration (African American)|the mass migration]] of over one million southern-born African Americans to the North or the West to evade discriminatory [[Jim Crow laws]] in the late 19th century and early 20th century.<ref name=":3" />

The [[European Union]] follows the principle of [[subsidiarity]], which holds that decision-making should be made by the most local competent authority. The EU should decide only on enumerated issues that a local or member state authority cannot address themselves. Furthermore, enforcement is exclusively the domain of member states. In Finland, the [[Centre Party (Finland)|Centre Party]] explicitly supports decentralization. For example, government departments have been moved from the capital Helsinki to the provinces. The centre supports substantial subsidies that limit potential economic and political centralization to Helsinki.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Renko |first1=Vappu |last2=Johannisson |first2=Jenny |last3=Kangas |first3=Anita |last4=Blomgren |first4=Roger |date=2022-04-16 |title=Pursuing decentralisation: regional cultural policies in Finland and Sweden |journal=International Journal of Cultural Policy |language=en |volume=28 |issue=3 |pages=342–358 |doi=10.1080/10286632.2021.1941915 |issn=1028-6632|doi-access=free }}</ref>

Political decentralization does not come without its drawbacks. A study by Fan concludes that there is an increase in corruption and [[rent-seeking]] when there are more vertical tiers in the government, as well as when there are higher levels of subnational government employment.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Fan |first1=C. Simon |last2=Lin |first2=Chen |last3=Treisman |first3=Daniel |title=Political decentralization and corruption: Evidence from around the world |journal=Journal of Public Economics |date=February 2009 |volume=93 |issue=1–2 |pages=14–34 |doi=10.1016/j.jpubeco.2008.09.001 |hdl=10722/192328 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> Other studies warn of high-level politicians that may intentionally deprive regional and local authorities of power and resources when conflicts arise.<ref name=":22"/> In order to combat these negative forces, experts believe that political decentralization should be supplemented with other conflict management mechanisms like [[Consociationalism|power-sharing]], particularly in regions with ethnic tensions.<ref name=":12"/>