Decentralizing development : the political economy of institutional change in Colombia and Chile

Does decentralization work in practice? Does it strengthen local level democracy and economic development? This book examines these questions by analysing the experience of seven medium sized cities in Colombia and Chile. The authors draw on extensive fieldwork involving numerous interviews with actors at all levels and from all sectors. The result is a unique test, at the local level in Latin America, of the outcome of reforms to the institutional structure of government.