Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The prime aim of this thesis is to examine the link between fiscal decentralization and local financial governance in fiscally empowered woreda administrations (districts) of the Amhara region in Ethiopia. Local financial governance has been one of the reasons and arguably the crucial one that drives many countries to subscribe to fiscal decentralization. The presumption is that public finance mobilization and spending can be implemented in a more efficient, responsive, transparent and accountable manner at the local government level than at the centre. Nonetheless, empirical studies show that the linkage between fiscal decentralization and these local financial governance benefits is not automatic. Several developing countries that have tried to implement fiscal decentralization have failed to realise the promised financial governance gains largely due to design and implementation flaws. A review of the various theoretical perspectives suggest that local financial governance is not a factor of just devolution of fiscal power but also other intervening forces such as financial management system, citizen voicing mechanisms and the social and political context. It is within the framework of this theoretical argument that this study sought to investigate how the mixed and incomplete efforts of the district level fiscal decentralization program in the Amhara region has impacted on financial governance of woreda administrations. The study assesses the efficacy and role of various initiatives of the district level decentralization program of the Amhara region, such as the fiscal empowerment of woredas; financial management system reforms; citizen voicing mechanisms and political party structures and system in influencing woreda financial governance. To this end, the investigation process largely took the form of an interpretative approach employing a combination of various methods of gathering the required qualitative and quantitative data from respondents and documents in the selected four case woredas or districts. Findings on the assessment of the intergovernmental relations to measure the adequacy of devolution of fiscal power indicate that, despite the constitutional provision that affords the woredas the power to mobilize and spend public finance for the provision of various local public services, several design and implementation shortcomings have constrained woreda administrations from exercising such power effectively. As a result, the district level fiscal decentralization framework of the Amhara region appears to have features of decentralization by de-concentration rather than by devolution. Despite the extensive financial management reforms that have been undertaken, the research findings indicate that the financial management system in woreda administrations faces a range of challenges triggered largely by important design and implementation shortcomings. It is observed that the ‘getting the basics right first’ reforms in various financial management processes of woreda administrations are not only incomplete but also found to be inconsistent with each other and therefore could not serve their purpose. Furthermore, there has not been any other change in the last two decades since the initial implementation of these reforms despite such serious shortcomings. Most importantly, woreda administrations could not properly implement the techniques, methods, procedures and rules that constituted the reform process due to serious implementation problems such as the lack of manpower competency and problems associated with the lack of administrative accountability. The results of the study’s assessment regarding the practice of social accountability show that currently there is no arrangement for citizens to participate in public financial decisions and controls. In general, people have little interest in participating in the meetings organised by woreda government. Formal and informal community based organizations suffer from important capcity constraints, and the lack of strong civil society organizations to support these community based organizations makes such problems more difficult to resolve. However, local communities did indicate that they would be interested in participating in financial and budgeting processes if a number of conditions were satisfied. These included the availability of adequate and relevant information; the introduction of genuine forms of participation in which citizens were empowered; and evidence that popular participation was making a visible impact on financial decisions related to service delivery in their surroundings. The assessment of the ruling party structure and system suggests that the centralized system of the regional ruling party has created a dominant relationship between party organs at various levels so much sothat it has undermined the fiscal discretionary power of woreda administrations; blurred relationship between party and woreda financial management systems; and undermined direct voicing. Consequently, the genuine devolution of fiscal power, the effective implementation of the decentralised financial management systems, and direct participation of citizens are unlikely to be realised within the current ruling party system and structure. Moreover, the study shows that the intergovernmental relations, the implementation of financial management reforms and direct involvement of people influence each other. The evidence suggests that the effective implementation of the financial management reforms is not possible without genuine devolution of fiscal power and arrangements for the activeinvolvement of citizens. Despite these limitations and shortcomings, the research nevertheless reveals that the decentralization process has achieved some positive results, such as the expansion of access to basic services; the economic use of resources for such expansion; the mobilization of resources from local communities; and the streamlining of a number of bureaucratic processes. However, the prevalence of various financial governance challenges such as excessive budget transfers; low budget execution; uneconomical procurement; illicit spending; budget pressure; inadequate revenue collection; poor financial transparency; and compromised accountability in fiscally decentralized woreda administrations means the promised local financial governance benefits of fiscal decentralization are remain largely unrealized. The evidences in the study strongly suggest that the shortcomings in the design and implementation of intergovernmental relations, financial management system reforms, and direct voicing mechanisms areresponsible in combination with each other for these local financial governance challenges. Thus, the study concludes that local financial governance is a result of a complex network of interactions of intergovernmental relations, public financial management arrangements and social accountability mechanisms. The success of initiatives to improve local financial governance is dependent on contextual factors such as the capacity of civil society organizations and the ruling party system and structure. Therefore, while recommending further efforts of genuine devolution of power, in particular through the continuation of the financial management reform processes towards full-fledged reforms, the study contends that opening enough space for the proliferation of civil society organizations and alternative political parties will be the main priority.

This thesis is about how elected politicians stay in power and about some of its economic and social consequences, fundamental political economy questions. It takes advantage of the decentralized political structure in the Philippines to test models of voter and politician behavior. In doing so, it contributes to the literature on clientelism and retrospective voting. In Chapter One, I assess the impacts of targeted government transfers on a local incumbent's electoral performance. I use the randomized roll-out of a CCT program in the Philippines where a number of municipalities are tightly controlled by political dynasties. In a competitive political environment, incumbent vote share is 26 percentage-points higher in municipalities where the program was implemented in all villages than in municipalities where the program was implemented in half of them. The program had no impact in municipalities with low levels of political competition. In Chapter Two, I test for the presence of political business cycles in Philippine municipalities over the period 2003-2009, a context where according to the literature such cycles are likely to be observed. I find robust evidence for the presence of political business. This effect is only present when I use quarterly data and vanishes when I aggregate the data at the yearly-level. The difference is not merely driven by a decline in statistical power due to aggregation: point estimates for the overall effects are 7 times larger when I use quarterly data than when I use yearly data. This discrepancy can be explained by a drop in employment post-election that dilutes the yearly effects. In Chapter Three, we estimate the impacts of being connected to local politicians, either currently in office or in opposition, on occupational choice. We use a large administrative dataset collected between 2008 and 2010 on all individuals in 700 Philippine municipalities along with information on all candidates in the 2007 and 2010 municipal elections. We rely on local naming conventions to assess blood and marriage links between households. Using individuals connected to successful candidates in the 2010 elections that did not run in 2007 as a control group, we find that connections to current office-holders increase the likelihood of being employed in better paying occupations. Individuals connected to candidates that were close to being elected in 2007 are less likely to be employed in better paying occupations.

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Thesis (MPA)--Stellenbosch University, 2004. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Since democracy, South Africa underwent significant changes and an encompassing integration and re-design of the state and society took place structurally, functionally and value-wise. The type of reform is accompanied with decentralisation or centralisation of powers and functions. Decentralisation is utilized by governments to achieve certain goals, and arguments that are normally raised in favour of decentralisation relate to efficiency of administration, democratisation, social and economic development, freedom and nation-building. The study investigates only political and bureaucratic/administrative structural decentralisation phenomena that appeared in local authorities in the Cape Metropole since democracy. A comparative perspective is given on phenomena that appeared in the City of Tygerberg and the City of Cape Town and the decentralisation phenomena are evaluated in terms of criteria for successful decentralisation. To be able to give the decentralisation comparative perspective, the study followed a variety of approaches. Firstly, the nature and extent of decentralisation is investigated. Secondly, decentralisation under the democratic state in the different spheres of government is investigated. Thirdly, South African policy which guides decentralisation initiatives on local government level is investigated. Fourthly, the study focusses on the two local government organisations the City of Tygerberg and the City of Cape Town to investigate which political and bureaucratic/administrative structural decentralisation phenomena appeared, and to which degree the phenomena complied with the values and requirements for successful decentralisation. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Sedert demokrasie het Suid-Afrika aansienlike hervormings ondergaan en het daar 'n omvattende integrasie en herontwerp van die staat en samelewing struktureel, funksioneel en waardegewys plaasgevind. Die tipe hervorming gaan gepaard met desentralisasie of sentralisasie van magte en funksies. Desentralisasie word deur regerings aangewend om sekere doelwitte te bereik en argumente wat normaalweg ten gunste van desentralisasie gevoer word, hou verband met doeltreffendheid van administrasie, demokratisering, sosiale en ekonomiese ontwikkeling, vryheid en nasiebou. Die studie ondersoek slegs politieke en burokratiese/administratiewe strukturele desentralisasie verskynsels wat in plaaslike owerhede in die Kaapse Metropool sedert demokrasie voorgekom het. 'n Vergelykende perspektief word gegee van desentralisasie verskynsels wat in die Stad Tygerberg en die Stad Kaapstad voorgekom het en die desentralisasie verskynsels word geëvalueer aan die hand van kriteria vir suksesvolle desentralisasie. Om die desentralisasie vergelykende perspektief te kon gee, volg die studie verskillende benaderinge. Eerstens word die aard en omvang van desentralisasie ondersoek. Tweedens word desentralisasie onder die demokratiese staat in die verskillende vlakke van regering ondersoek. Derdens word Suid-Afrikaanse beleid bestudeer wat desentralisasie-inisiatiewe rig op plaaslike regeringsvlak. Vierdens word op die twee plaaslike owerheidsorganisasies Stad Tygerberg en Stad Kaapstad gefokus om te ondersoek watter politieke en burokratiese/administratiewe strukturele desentralisasie verskynsels voorgekom het en in watter mate die verskynsels aan die waardes en vereistes wat vir suksesvolle desentralisasie gestel word, voldoen.

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Master / Master of Science in Construction Project Management

This study focussed on the transformation of the institutions of local government from deconcentration, delegation to devolution. This transformation can be looked at starting with the institutions inherited from the colonial era, which started after the Berlin Conference of 1884, which divided Africa among the western powers. Then the transformation, which took place immediately after independence / that is the period of 1960s, the changes made in the 1980s and finally the transformation taking place following the multiparty democracy in the 1990s. The study looked at decentralisation during the colonial period / decentralisation after independence, with a particular focus on the institutions under a single party system / transformation of local government under multiparty system. It also examined the challenges facing decentralisation in the SADC region.

The idea of a distinctly ‘liberal’ form of multiculturalism has emerged in the theory and practice of Western democracies and the international community has become actively engaged in its global dissemination via international norms and organizations. This thesis investigates the internationalization of minority rights, by exploring state-minority relations in Cambodia, in light of Will Kymlicka’s theory of multicultural citizenship. Based on extensive empirical research, the analysis explores the situation and aspirations of Cambodia’s ethnic Vietnamese, highland peoples, Muslim Cham, ethnic Chinese and Lao and the relationships between these groups and the state. All Cambodian regimes since independence have defined citizenship with reference to the ethnicity of the Khmer majority and have - often violently - enforced this conception through the assimilation of highland peoples and the Cham and the exclusion of ethnic Vietnamese and Chinese. Cambodia’s current constitution, too, defines citizenship ethnically. State-sponsored Khmerization systematically privileges members of the majority culture and marginalizes minority members politically, economically and socially. The thesis investigates various international initiatives aimed at promoting application of minority rights norms in Cambodia. It demonstrates that these initiatives have largely failed to accomplish a greater degree of compliance with international norms in practice. This failure can be explained by a number of factors, among them Cambodia’s neo-patrimonial political system, the geo-political fears of a ‘minoritized’ Khmer majority, the absence of effective regional security institutions, the lack of minority access to political decision-making, the significant differences between international and Cambodian conceptions of modern statehood and citizenship and the emergence of China as Cambodia’s most important bilateral donor and investor. Based on this analysis, the dissertation develops recommendations for a sequenced approach to minority rights promotion, with pragmatic, less ambitious shorter-term measures that work progressively towards achievement of international norms in the longer-term. / In der politischen Theorie und Praxis liberaler Demokratien hat sich die Idee eines explizit liberalen Multikulturalismus etabliert. Die internationale Gemeinschaft verbreitet diese Idee weltweit durch Völkerrechtsnormen und internationale Organisationen. Auf der Grundlage umfangreicher Feldforschung untersucht die vorliegende Dissertation die Internationalisierung von Minderheitenrechten am Beispiel Kambodschas. Dazu werden die Situation und Aspirationen von Kambodschas ethnischen Vietnamesen, Bergvölkern, islamischen Cham, ethnischen Chinesen und Laoten und das Verhältnis zwischen diesen Gruppen und dem Staat analysiert. Alle kambodschanischen Regimes seit der Unabhängigkeit haben Staatsbürgerschaft über die Ethnizität der Khmer Mehrheit definiert und diese Konzeption durch den Versuch der Assimilation der Bergvölker und Cham und den Ausschluss ethnischer Vietnamesen und Chinesen aktiv und oft gewaltsam zu verwirklichen versucht. Auch die aktuelle Verfassung definiert Mitgliedschaft im Gemeinwesen ethnisch. Das Streben des Staates nach der kulturellen ‚Khmerisation‘ der Bevölkerung privilegiert Mehrheitsmitglieder und marginalisiert Mitglieder kultureller Minderheiten politisch, wirtschaftlich und sozial. Trotz vielfältiger Initiativen ist die internationale Gemeinschaft daran gescheitert, in Kambodscha die Anwendung internationaler Minderheitenrechte zu erreichen. Die Analyse erklärt dieses Scheitern mit einer Reihe von Faktoren, darunter Kambodschas neo-patrimonialem Regierungssystem, den geo-politischen Ängsten einer ‚minoritisierten’ Khmer Mehrheit, dem Fehlen effektiver regionaler Sicherheitsinstitutionen, dem fehlenden Zugang von Minderheiten zu politischen Entscheidungsprozessen, den erheblichen Unterschieden zwischen internationalen und kambodschanischen Konzeptionen von moderner Staatlichkeit und Staatsbürgerschaft sowie der zunehmenden Bedeutung Chinas als Kambodschas wichtigstem bilateraler Geber und Investor. Auf der Grundlage dieser Analyse entwickelt die Arbeit Empfehlungen, wie die internationale Gemeinschaft mit einem sequenzierten Ansatz die schrittweise Annäherung an internationale Normen und deren langfristige Einhaltung erreichen kann.

This thesis presents three core chapters examining different aspects of the relationship between natural resources and economic development. While addressing different questions they share several features in common: a concern with causal inference; overcoming the challenges of endogeneity between resource abundance and other characteristics of developing countries; and the use of new and novel datasets with spatially identified units of analysis. The work contributes to a rich and growing empirical literature seeking to deepen our understanding of the underlying mechanisms affecting the fortunes of resource-abundant countries. In the introductory chapter I discuss the extensive literature on this topic and in particular focus on the new generation of well-identified within-country studies, seeking to understand the empirical relationship between resources and economic development. Countries typically welcome the news of a resource discovery with joy and indeed, resource discoveries hold great economic potential. But what determines whether a country is resource rich or not? Is it more than just a chance finding, or good geology? In Chapter 2, entitled Institutions and the Location of Oil Exploration I present an investigation into this question. I examine the relationship between governance and choices of where to drill for oil. This work utilises a new dataset on exploration wells and looks at the distribution of drilling close to national borders. This allows me to identify estimates for the effect of differences in governance between neighbours. Two times out of three, investors choose to drill on the side of borders that are better governed, all other things being equal. This suggests that resource-wealth itself may be contingent on factors beyond geology, and indeed may be endogenous to the process of development. In Chapter 3, entitled The Local Effects of Resource Extraction, I turn my attention to the local economic consequences of industrial mining in Indonesia. I present a simple three-sector general equilibrium model to generate predictions for the local labour market, akin to the Corden-Neary Dutch disease model of the macroeconomy. I test the predicted effects in response to an exogenous resource sector shock by looking at mine opening or mine expansion events across three hundred mines. I test the predictions of the model, first by estimating the economic footprint from industrial mining; found to be an average of fifteen kilometre radius. I then examine the response of reported labour market activity from households surveyed in nearby communities. Here I find no evidence for a shift of local labour into the mining sector. I do find however a notable movement of labour from the traded sectors (agriculture and manufacturing) to the non-traded service sector, with a strong effect for foreign-owned mines versus domestic ones. Chapter 4, entitled Disentangling the Effects of Resource Extraction: Local Government and Investment Multipliers, examines the oil and gas boom in Indonesia from 1999-2009. Here I deploy a variety of identification strategies to attempt to disentangle the regional effects of the boom, measured in terms of district GDP. I estimate effects arising from transfers of revenue to local government. Using an instrumental variable approach I isolate the fiscal channel from resource projects. I find a positive and significant effect of increased local government revenues on district GDP over the boom decade. I then examine the spillovers from resource projects, isolating them from fiscal transfers. For districts neighbouring resource rich districts I find evidence for a modest positive effect arising from project investments, rather than fiscal transfers. In Chapter 5 I present concluding thoughts and discuss a future research agenda. I also summarise the burgeoning landscape of resource data available for within country and spatially identified studies and offer some thoughts on how this might evolve.

La décentralisation apparaît comme une des réponses à la crise de gouvernabilité de l’État malien et une condition nécessaire à l’enracinement de la démocratie et du développement. Il s’est agi de trouver une solution à la quête d’une plus grande autonomie dans la gestion de leurs affaires que certaines régions du pays exprimaient y compris de manière violente, allant même jusqu’à évoquer la possibilité d’une sécession (rébellion Touareg 1990-96 au Mali). La gestion de la rébellion au Mali a donné naissance à la décentralisation. Cette dernière aura comme prérogative la gestion foncière au sein des nouvelles collectivités territoriales.Les chefferies traditionnelles ont encore un pouvoir sur toutes les communes et en particulier sur le foncier. Les problèmes de gestion sont liés à une distribution non juridiquement établie de la terre provoquant des occupations de fait usuelles qui entraînent des litiges sans fin entre propriétaires (premiers occupants) et occupants actuels. La question de la décentralisation et du foncier se pose au niveau d’une gestion peu transparente du pouvoir local et de l’attribution arbitraire des champs, des différentes cultures de cram-cram, de fonio, des rizières, des pâturages, de l’eau…etc. Les législations foncières ignorent les principes juridiques des systèmes fonciers locaux et laissent l’essentiel des populations rurales dans un système de précarité et souvent d’illégalité aux yeux de l’État. Elles sont sources de conflits que la pluralité des instances d’arbitrage (coutumières, administratives, judiciaires) ne permet pas de régler de façon durable. De tels choix institutionnels sont d’abord des choix politiques. Par la présente étude nous nous proposons de montrer l’importance de la place du foncier dans le processus de décentralisation, à l’interphase des droits coutumiers ancestraux et des droits nouveaux apportés par la décentralisation et les problèmes qui en découlent. / Decentralization appears as one of the answers to the crisis of the governing of the state of Mali and as a compulsory condition to the rootedness of democracy and development.They had to find a solution to the quest of a greater autonomy in the management of their affairs that some regions of the country expressed -sometimes violently- even going as far as evoking the eventuality of a secession (Touareg revolt in Mali 1990-1996).The management of the revolt in Mali has given birth to decentralization. This one will have the prerogative of the management of the land through the new territory authorities.The traditional District officers are bound to a non-judicially established distribution of the land –causing usual actual occupations which involve endless disputes between owners (first occupants) and today’s occupants.The problems between the devolution and the land property lies in a very little clear management of the local authorities and of the arbitrary allotment of the meadows, the different growing of cram-cram, of fonio, of the rice-fields, of the grazing-grounds, of the water...The land laws ignore the judicial principles of the local land systems and leave the major part of the rural populations in a state of great precariousness and often of illegality regarding the government.They are a source of conflicts that can’t be solved in a permanent way because of the numerous arbitration authorities (customary-administrative-judiciary).Such institutional choices are mainly political choices.Through this study we intend to show the importance of the land in the process of decentralization, at the interface of ancestral rights and new rights brought about by decentralization and the problems that proceed from it.