Decentralization and Popular Democracy: Governance from Below in Bolivia Hardcover – June 4, 2012

"This book promises to alter the entire debate on decentralization and will certainly make a signal contribution to the field."
- James Dunkerley, Queen Mary University of London

"This is a very important book that provides detailed evidence of the transformative potential of local democracy in developing countries. And it does so for a country that could have been seen as the least promising in Latin America.  I value it greatly."
- Roger Myerson, University of Chicago and 2007 Nobel Laureate in Economics

"The policy implications of the book are profound: the findings suggest that policy makers and international organizations that expect decentralization to be a ''one size fits all'' solution have it completely wrong. It is only through an understanding of the local level dynamics that decentralization unleashes that we will be able to answer why some governments are able to provide responsive and accountable government while others
fail to do so."
- Martín Ardanaz, Inter-American Development Bank

"Faguet provides a timely analysis of the long-term effects of decentralization with rigorous methods and innovative data. It is a good example of how robust econometrics, vibrant thick descriptions, and a deep historical understanding of our objects of study can move our discipline forward by clarifying our theoretical debates."
- Alexander Ruiz-Euler, University of California San Diego, Comparative Political Studies (2013)

"Faguet becomes a witty novelist, with a rich qualitative analysis cleverly divided into "before" and "after" scenarios. The results are astonishing. This book contributes enormously to the understanding of decentralisation, regardless of the specificities of this country and/or region, and will appeal to academics and policy makers alike. Readers will find solid and scientific arguments to validate the idea that better governance in the developing world is possible."
- Martín Mendoza, Tulane University, Political Studies Review (2013)

Decentralization is everywhere around us and yet we cannot say what, if anything, it achieves.  Proponents argue that it will deepen democracy, improve public services, and make government more accountable.  These intuitions have prompted a massive policy response across the globe, with an estimated 80-100 percent of the world's countries experimenting with reform.  But careful research has not found that it achieves any of these goals.  Is it all empty fashion?  A giant mistake?

In Decentralization and Popular Democracy, Jean-Paul Faguet uses the remarkable case of Bolivia, a radical reformer over two decades, to investigate what happens when a country decentralizes.  The answer is remarkable success leading to transformation.  Public investment shifted dramatically towards primary services and human capital formation, while the distribution of resources across the nation became much more equitable.  These changes were disproportionately driven by Bolivia's smaller, poorer, more rural municipalities investing newly devolved funds according to greatest need.  The accumulation of such micro-level changes led the Bolivian state as a whole to become more responsive to citizens nationwide.

But these successes are only the beginning.  Some municipalities responded to decentralization with transparent, accountable government, while others suffered ineptitude, corruption, and worse. Why?  In order to discover the causes of good and bad government, Faguet drives his investigation deep into the political and social underpinnings of governance.  He deploys statistical evidence covering all of Bolivia's municipalities, territory, and citizens over twenty-one years, alongside deep qualitative evidence based on fieldwork that ranges from the altiplano to the broad Eastern plains, and from the smallest hamlets to the richest industrial cities.

His results show that governments are responsive and accountable when civil society is rich in active, organized groups, and these groups compete with economic interests for influence over policy decisions.  The interaction of civic and economic actors is especially important, resolving differences between them and often modifying the priorities of each.  Where more interactions occur, Faguet demonstrates, government outcomes are systematically better.  These insights are used to construct a theory of government that explains why some democracies succeed and others fail.