The past two decades have witnessed a fundamental transformation in the structure of government across East Asia. Prior to 1990 most East Asian countries were highly centralized; today, decentralization is ubiquitous throughout the region. From China to Thailand, sub-national governments are now...

This volume presents a preliminary framework designed to help international development partners consider the relevance of political economy issues for their programmatic support to decentralization and local government reform. The intention is neither to advocate decentralization in general or...