This study examines the performance of decentralized health and education service delivery in Indonesia. Results show that education outcomes improved with decentralization, and that local governments are responding to local needs for education services. Decentralization also brings improvement to health services, as mortality rates and life expectancy are significantly improved with decentralization. However, results indicate that decentralization does not improve availability of health services, as only small percentage of municipalities in Indonesia have access to health facilities. The empirical study on the performance of proliferated municipalities provides similar conclusions to those obtained in the examination of general decentralization performance. Proliferated municipalities experience improvement in education outcomes but not so for health outcomes; these results are consistent with the previous examination. Therefore, from the result of this study, there is no evidence to reject proliferation as it does not hurt health and education service delivery outcomes.

No description available.

Thesis (Honors)--College of William and Mary, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 59-64). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis--Princeton University. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Decentralization is a prominent policy strategy for transferring power from an elite to grassroots actors or from the government to the private or nonprofit sectors. In many developing countries, decentralization has been the policy of choice for improving chronically low performing education systems. This report examines decentralization in three developing countries; Colombia, Indonesia, and South Africa, which are seeking to address their longstanding educational problems. The case studies suggest that effective decentralization depends on creating a clear and measurable vision and a robust strategic plan to achieve it. The studies further revealed the importance of community participation in active school governance, which led to practical solutions to school financial and administrative problems. This research is an attempt to pay attention to problems that could be raised during the journey of policy implementation, as well as to offer guidelines for effective, sustainable change. The discrepancy between policy and practice is a great dilemma, as Cohen said, particularly with the lack of sufficient experience in implementing the new political movements such as decentralization. This report seeks to identify the key components of an effective decentralization plan by tracing the successes and shortcomings of the three case studies. It concludes that a successful education system not only needs a clear vision and effective community participation but also an effective and practical organizational transformation to achieve progress in implementing decentralization. Changes in the educational hierarchy should occur at both the local level and the central level, and should entail more than just a change in the names of positions without changing the tasks themselves. / text

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A central tenet of democratic theory is that the exercise of governance be both legitimate and accountable. Elections constitute the fundamental means through which these ends are met. Critical to this process is the ability of the citizen to correctly assign responsibility for government action. Institutional arrangements are central to defining the pathways of accountability. In institutional contexts with only one level of government, assigning responsibility is relatively straightforward. However, in situations of multiple and overlapping levels of government, the process of correctly assigning responsibility and ultimately holding governments accountable for their actions is much more difficult. In comparative contexts, there has been and continues to be a long-term trend towards the decentralization of political authority to sub-national levels of government. Despite this widespread current, little is known about the effects these processes have on democratic accountability. / The central proposition tested in this dissertation is that decentralized multi-level governance undermines democratic accountability. This proposition is tested through drawing on the reward and punishment calculus of economic voting: incumbent governments are rewarded (punished) for good (bad) economic conditions. When lines of accountability are clear, the individual voter can easily apportion blame (credit) to the government for economic conditions by voting against (for) the government. Where multiple levels of decentralized authority cloud responsibility, accountability for economic outcomes (either positive or negative) is likely to be undermined. / This proposition is tested comparatively using cross-national aggregate economic and election statistics as well as cross-national individual-level data. Case studies of institutional change towards multi-level governance in Belgium, Scotland and Spain are examined for the theorized effects on accountability for economic conditions. Finally, a case study of federal and provincial economic voting in Canada is conducted using individual-level data from recent Canadian Election Studies. Both comparatively and in case studies, the findings of this dissertation consistently indicate that accountability for economic conditions is undermined by the presence of decentralized multi-level governance. / This dissertation makes an important contribution to the study of multi-level governance, economic voting and comparative politics through uncovering institutional effects of decentralized multi-level governance that undermine political accountability and, ultimately, the health of democracy.

Thesis (M. P. A.)--Texas State University-San Marcos, 2007. / "Summer 2007." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 89-95).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Yale University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references.