The Performance of Decentralisation Strategies Compared : An assessment of decentralisation strategies and their impact on local government performance in Germany, France and England

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the impact of differing decentralisation strategies – political, administrative and horizontal – on administrative performance subsequent to reform. In this respect, the paper presents core results from a comprehensive research project that has been carried out between 2006 and 2009 on the impact of decentralisation in three European countries. The aim of the project has been to develop and apply an analytical framework for the measurement of the effects of national decentralisation policies on local government performance. A total of six reform ventures were scrutinised in French, German and English local communities applying a multidimensional set of performance measures. Surprisingly, many of the theoretical assumptions about the effects of decentralisation strategies could not be confirmed. Moreover, straightforward relations were not discovered between decentralisation strategies and performance effects but between policy fields, political interests and the time elapsed since the reform and performance.