The study focused on the efficacy of the democratic education decentralization policy. The study focused on the efficacy of the democratic education decentralization policy implementation of the four schools of Kadoma District in Zimbabwe. The thesis reviewed literature and discussed the concept of the democratic education decentralization policy implementation and how this has been practiced in Zimbabwe. The theoretical basis of democratic education decentralization policies were outlined and the argument for and against the policy discussed. Thus the dissertation explored the concept of education decentralization policy with specific reference to the notions of democratization and participation in Zimbabwe. Besides the qualitative and the quantitative research methods employed, the study was complemented by the observation on the ground and document analysis. The thesis unearthed that; the democratic education decentralization policy is characterized by some successes and problems during implementation of the policy as indicated by the paucity of the teaching and learning resources. The research findings revealed that, there is prevalence of poor learning outcomes at ‘O’ level in schools; the SDCs/SDAs are underutilized sources of school development because they are not fully empowered by the education system since they had a minimum role in participating towards the implementation of the policy in order to acquire the teaching and learning resources at the schools in Kadoma District. The above findings long-established the view held by critical theorists of the Participatory Governance Model that there is a complementary relationship between the participation of the SDC/SDA in acquiring the teaching as well as the learning resources and the academic performance of learners. Thus, the study concluded that decentralization policy implementation was the major driving force in strengthening efficiency and accountability of resources and results.mplementation of the four schools of Kadoma District in Zimbabwe. The thesis reviewed literature and discussed the concept of the democratic education decentralization policy implementation and how this has been practiced in Zimbabwe. The theoretical basis of democratic education decentralization policies were outlined and the argument for and against the policy discussed. Thus the dissertation explored the concept of education decentralization policy with specific reference to the notions of democratization and participation in Zimbabwe. Besides the qualitative and the quantitative research methods employed, the study was complemented by the observation on the ground and document analysis. The thesis unearthed that; the democratic education decentralization policy is characterized by some successes and problems during implementation of the policy as indicated by the paucity of the teaching and learning resources. The research findings revealed that, there is prevalence of poor learning outcomes at ‘O’ level in schools; the SDCs/SDAs are underutilized sources of school development because they are not fully empowered by the education system since they had a minimum role in participating towards the implementation of the policy in order to acquire the teaching and learning resources at the schools in Kadoma District. The above findings long-established the view held by critical theorists of the Participatory Governance Model that there is a complementary relationship between the participation of the SDC/SDA in acquiring the teaching as well as the learning resources and the academic performance of learners. Thus, the study concluded that decentralization policy implementation was the major driving force in strengthening efficiency and accountability of resources and results.

Magister Legum - LLM / The focus of this study was on the Interim Constitution adopted on 9 July 2005 by Sudan. The significance of the federal principle both as a peacemaking device and a tool of democratisation was considered. The objective of the study was to provide an informed and well-researched estimation of the potential perils and possibilities for success of Sudan's contemporary constitutional arrangement. / South Africa

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / There is a realisation that urbanisation has overstretched the ability and efforts of central governments to serve from the centre, thus, giving rise to the search for a robust decentralisation policy that vests urban local governments with some level of autonomy.1 It is in this context that decentralisation has become critical in order to sufficiently respond to the varied service delivery challenges brought about by increasing urbanisation. However, all efforts to capacitate urban councils through the process of decentralisation are futile if the urban local governments lack the necessary financial means to fulfil their responsibilities. / South Africa

Magister Legum - LLM / Ethiopia is a federal state located in the horn of Africa. The Constitution has assignedlegislative, executive and judicial powers to the federal and regional Governments.1The main objective of this study is, therefore, to find out whether the decentralization of governmental powers between the national and the state governments of Ethiopia is also reflected in the decentralization of functional competences concerning environment related matters. In other words, this study attempts to determine whether Ethiopia is environmentally federal state, the extent and the possible shortcomings of the environmental federal structure. With this basic aim or objective in mind, in the study attempts will be made to see how the Constitution allocates the powers regarding environment among the federal, state, and local governments. To that effect, the role of the federal, the State and the local governments regarding the setting of environmental standards, pollution control and EIA will critically be analyzed. The match or the mismatch of the role of the federal as well as the state governments with their capacity will be investigated. Comparisons with selected legal systems will also be made for the purpose of identifying the practice of other systems in specific environmental matters selected for comparisons.

The late1980s, early 1990s was a time of change in the Swedish education system. New political reforms changed the Swedish living and school standards. The outcome of the reforms were decentralization, parents’ right to choose school and independent schools. The reforms opened up for a more local influence in schools, and paretns right to choose school and education of their own intreset. The focus of this essay is the concept of decentralization and equivalence and how it has changed and formed todays ementary school. This is a literary study about changes in the Swedish education system founded on studie reports and political reforms. The outcome of this study shows a change in the Swedish school, whitch has segregated both schools and students in a more homogeneously way, and the equality  has deteriorated.

This research investigated the impact of decentralisation on participatory development in the Nsanje District of Malawi from 2009 to 2014. Existing challenges in realising effective participation were identified by acquiring information from documents at three spheres of government, namely local, district and national. The literature explains decentralisation and local government; the theories of state-local relations; the nature, types and determinants of participation; the legislative framework of local government; and decentralisation reforms being implemented in Malawi. A descriptive approach was used in the study, with the emphasis on collecting data from primary sources such as minutes, reports, newspapers, and secondary sources such as the District Council and local government department records, books, academic journals, completed and unpublished post-graduate research theses, and legislation. From the acquired information, a number of recommendations are made to deal with various challenges faced to achieve effective participatory development in the District.

This study explored, described and attempted to understand the process of change by examining the conversion to school-based management in two Western Canadian public school districts. The study sought to determine where, when, how and why the main actors and factors initiated and provided impetus to the change to school-based management. The emergence of these questions was based on a review of the literature on educational change, school improvement efforts and the change to decentralized decision-making. The literature indicates not only a need to explain the causes of change but also a need to determine ways to influence those causes, to change our planning processes and to produce better planners and implementers. A case study method was utilized with interviews of 43 persons to obtain their perceptions. The sample represented seven levels of district organizational structure: classroom teachers, school principals, central office staff, superintendent(s) , assistant/ associate superintendent(s), trustees, and local teachers' association representatives in each district. Other data sources included district documents and the researcher's field notes. The data were first analyzed descriptively by using Fullan's three phases of the change process: initiation, implementation, and continuation (including perceived outcomes) . A comparative analysis of the data was then undertaken between the two school districts. Finally, an interpretive analysis was undertaken in relation to the current literature on change in education. The main findings are the existence of the following: 1. two subphases of adoption (pre-adoption and formal adoption). Although the literature suggests possible subphases of adoption, this study acknowledges two such subphases. 2. two subphases of implementation (pre-implementation and formal implementation). As with adoption, the literature refers to the possible existence of subphases; however, this study identifies two such subphases. 3. three subphases of continuation (outcome determination processes or mechanisms, identification of outcomes and outcome review). The literature makes reference only to the broad phase of continuation with no reference to subphases. It is interesting to note that the study identifies three main sub-activities or subphases characterizing continuation. 4. four process change variables, each encompassing a number of interactive factors which guide the change process through the three broad phases of change. These process change variables are sources of the initiative, attributes of the initiative, support gathering and context. Again, the literature refers to the cause of change; however, it is interesting to note that certain variables work to influence the causes of change. 5. a management cycle which provided, within the context of continuation, a process for achieving desired school and/or district outcomes. Implicit in the cycle are critical elements for school improvement such as strategic planning, monitoring and review of progress (outcomes), budget planning and resource management. The literature identifies the importance of monitoring results (outcomes) and the importance of change; however, the existence of a cycle of such events during continuation appears novel. 6. a revised model of change in education which offers a modification to that of Fullan and others. This model serves to outline the influences contributing to the change process in general and leads to a revised model of change in education. A number of recommendations based on the findings and conclusions are made. Those addressed to practitioners suggest they should utilize a pilot test to determine the quality of the initiative and it should be held concurrently with preparation of district and school personnel, develop a "blueprint" and/or "template" (vision) for production of an initiative; and establish a management cycle for procuring data on the initiative' s performance in order to compare the outcomes to the original goals for change. The remaining recommendations are addressed to those who would do further research which confirms the change process variables and the clusters of factors associated with each. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA(DVS) / A country's decentralization process can be one of the pillars of democratic participation, local and regional accountability, sub-national empowerment, and under certain conditions, economic growth. Fiscal decentralization, a sub-division of decentralization, plays an important role in defining the assignment of expenditure and of revenue sources to subnational levels of government. The proper assignment of revenue provides all the different governments of a country with the necessary financial resources to operate efficiently. In this mini-thesis, I analyze the assignment of taxes as revenue sources to local governments, giving special focus to the Peruvian case. It aims at proposing an optimal local taxation system for Peruvian local governments.

This dissertation identifies and theorizes a new form by which leaders exert their influence over subordinates: hierarchical-decentralization. To further investigate hierarchical-decentralization and its effects on team outcomes, we develop two research themes which include three independent studies. The first research theme focuses on how hierarchical-decentralization influences team processes and team performance. We conduct an experimental study (Study 1-1) and a field study (Study 1-2) on this research theme. In Study 1-1 (detailed in Chapter 2), we conceptualize hierarchical-decentralization, examine the relationship between hierarchical-decentralization and team performance, and test whether and why hierarchical-decentralization produces higher team performance than either centralization or decentralization. Through an experimental study, we found that hierarchical-decentralization was positively related to team performance, and that hierarchical-decentralization outperformed either centralization or decentralization in steering team performance. Following Study 1-1, we conduct Study 1-2 (described in Chapter 3), which aims to further explore the underlying mechanism that produces the positive effect of hierarchical-decentralization on team performance, and to identify the conditions under which the benefit of hierarchical-decentralization tends to become more noticeable. Through a field study, we found that team coordination mediated the relationship between hierarchical-decentralization and team performance. We further found that inter-team competitive intensity strengthened the positive relationship between hierarchical-decentralization and team coordination, as well as the positive indirect relationship between hierarchical-decentralization and team performance via team coordination. The second research theme focuses on the application of influence structure of hierarchical-decentralization to the research on leader-member exchange (LMX) differentiation. We conduct a field study (Study 2) on this research theme. Specifically, in Study 2 (detailed in Chapter 4), we investigate whether and why the vertical chain of influence among team members (we follow the research conducted by Burderson et al (2016) and refer it to acyclicity) would offset the detrimental effect of LMX differentiation on social relations among team members and ultimately on team performance. Through a field study covering 89 diverse working teams, we found that LMX differentiation became to be not significantly related to status conflict when a team had a high level of acyclicity and meanwhile when its team members' LMX statuses were in line with their influence levels within acyclicity. Although this relationship is not statistically significant, the negative relationship between LMX differentiation and status conflict somewhat suggests that acyclicity, when all of the most influential members within it are of the highest relationship qualities with leaders, might have the potential to turn the detrimental effect of LMX differentiation on social interactions among team members into a beneficial effect (i.e., one that reduces status conflict among team members). We further found that status conflict was negatively related to team performance, and that it mediated the relationship between LMX differentiation and team performance. The theoretical and practical implications of the two research themes are then discussed.

This study explores hospital board governance, particularly the dimensions of accountability, transparency and civic participation, within Local Health Councils (LHCs) in two locations in rural Paraguay. The democratization and decentralization efforts of the Paraguayan federal government in the last 20 years resulted in creation of the LHCs, but little research has been conducted on how these entities are now working in comparison to the expectations envisioned for them. This study examines LHC member understanding and practices by conducting semi-structured interviews with council members in two different locations. I reviewed relevant Paraguayan law and compared LHC member responses with the legal expectations of the role of the LHC and council member responsibilities. I also reviewed several health council organizational documents, such as rules and procedures, financial statements and by-laws, with the same intent. Using interpretive social science methods, I analyzed this data in conjunction with the information I gathered through participant-observation during my Peace Corps service in one of the communities examined here. This study finds that local health councils face numerous challenges to governance, including member role confusion, few implemented planning and oversight processes, weak systems of accountability and a lack of resources and support given to LHCs, creating a great challenge to meet expectations set out for them by federal law. / Master of Urban and Regional Planning