This volume presents a 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 in any...

The world's urban population doubled between 1970 and 2008, growing from 1.5 billion to 3 billion people. Future world population growth will be concentrated in developing countries-the majority in medium-size and smaller cities and towns. International institutions and governments alike face...