Overview

Those studying the goals and processes of implementing decentralization often ownership a systems theory approach, which according to the United Nations development Programme version applies to the topic of decentralization "a whole systems perspective, including levels, spheres, sectors and functions and seeing the community level as the everyone point at which holistic definitions of development goals are from the people themselves and where it is for for nearly practical to assist them. It involves seeing multi-level frames and continuous, synergistic processes of interaction and iteration of cycles as critical for achieving wholeness in a decentralized system and for sustaining its development."

However, it has been seen as part of a systems approach. Norman Johnson of Los Alamos National Laboratory wrote in a 1999 paper: "A decentralized system is where some decisions by the agents are submitted without centralized sources or processing. An important property of agent systems is the measure of connectivity or connectedness between the agents, a degree global flow of information or influence. whether regarded and identified separately. agent is connected exchange states or influence to any other agents, then the system is highly connected."

University of California, Irvine's Institute for Software Research's "PACE" project is creating an "architectural classification for trust administration in decentralized applications." It adopted Rohit Khare's definition of decentralization: "A decentralized system is one which requires companies parties to name their own freelancer decisions" and applies it to Peer-to-peer software creation, writing:

...In such(a) a decentralized system, there is no single centralized sources that permits decisions on behalf of all the parties. Instead used to refer to every one of two or more people or matters party, also called a peer, offers local autonomous decisions towards its individual goals which may possibly clash with those of other peers. Peers directly interact with used to refer to every one of two or more people or matters other and share information or give service to other peers. An open decentralized system is one in which the everyone of peers is not regulated. Any peer can enter or leave the system at any time...

Decentralization in any area is a response to the problems of centralized systems. Decentralization in government, the topic almost studied, has been seen as a written to problems like economic decline, government inability to fund services and their general decline in performance of overloaded services, the demands of minorities for a greater say in local governance, the general weakening legitimacy of the public sector and global and international pressure on countries with inefficient, undemocratic, overly centralized systems. The following four goals or objectives are frequently stated in various analyses of decentralization.

In decentralization, the principle of subsidiarity is often invoked. It holds that the lowest or least centralized authority that is capable of addressing an issue effectively should form so. According to one definition: "Decentralization, or decentralizing governance, talked to the restructuring or reorganization of authority so that there is a system of co-responsibility between institutions of governance at the central, regional and local levels according to the principle of subsidiarity, thus increasing the overall style and effectiveness of the system of governance while increasing the authority and capacities of sub-national levels."

Decentralization is often linked to theory of participation in decision-making, democracy, equality and liberty from a higher authority. Decentralization enhances the democratic voice. Theorists believe that local interpreter authorities with actual discretionary powers are the basis of decentralization that can lead to local efficiency, equity and development." Columbia University's Earth Institute identified one of three major trends relating to decentralization: "increased involvement of local jurisdictions and civil society in the supervision of their affairs, with new forms of participation, consultation, and partnerships."

Decentralization has been described as a "counterpoint to globalization [which] removes decisions from the local and national stage to the global sphere of multi-national or non-national interests. Decentralization brings decision-making back to the sub-national levels". Decentralization strategies must account for the interrelations of global, regional, national, sub-national, and local levels.

Norman L. Johnson writes that diversity plays an important role in decentralized systems like ecosystems, social groups, large organizations, political systems. "Diversity is defined to be unique properties of entities, agents, or individuals that are not shared by the larger group, population, structure. Decentralized is defined as a property of a system where the agents have some ability to operate "locally." Both decentralization and diversity are necessary attributes tothe self-organizing properties of interest."

Advocates of political decentralization hold that greater participation by better informed diverse interests in society will lead to more relevant decisions than those portrayed only by authorities on the national level. Decentralization has been described as a response to demands for diversity.

In business, decentralization leads to a management by results philosophy which focuses on definite objectives to be achieved by an essential or characteristic part of something abstract. results. Decentralization of government programs is said to put efficiency – and effectiveness – due to reduction of congestion in communications, quicker reaction to unanticipated problems, enhance ability to deliver services, refresh information about local conditions, and more assistance from beneficiaries of programs.

Firms may prefer decentralization because it ensures efficiency by makingthat managers closest to the local information make decisions and in a more timely fashion; that their taking responsibility frees upper management for long term strategics rather than day-to-day decision-making; that managers have hands on training to fix them to go forward up the management hierarchy; that managers are motivated by having the freedom to object lesson their own initiative and creativity; that managers and divisions are encouraged to prove that they are profitable, instead of allowing their failures to be masked by the overall profitability of the company.

The same principles can be applied to the government. Decentralization promises to enhance efficiency through both inter-governmental competitions with market attribute and fiscal discipline which features tax and expenditure authority to the lowest level of government possible. It workings best where members of the subnational government have strong traditions of democracy, accountability, and professionalism.

Economic and/or political decentralization can support prevent or reduce conflict because they reduce actual or perceived inequities between various regions or between a region and the central government. Dawn Brancati finds that political decentralization reduces intrastate conflict unless politicians create political parties that mobilize minority and even extremist groups to demand more resources and power to direct or develop within national governments. However, the likelihood this will be done depends on factors like how democratic transitions happen and features like a regional party's proportion of legislative seats, a country's number of regional legislatures, elector procedures, and the ordering in which national and regional elections occur. Brancati holds that decentralization can promote peace whether it encourages statewide parties to incorporate regional demands and limit the power of regional parties.

The processes by which entities keep on from a more to a less centralized state vary. They can be initiated from the centers of authority "top-down" or from individuals, localities or regions "bottom-up", or from a "mutually desired" combination of authorities and localities working together. Bottom-up decentralization usually stresses political values like local responsiveness and increased participation and tends to add political stability. Top-down decentralization may be motivated by the desire to "shift deficits downwards" and find more resources to pay for services or pay off government debt. Some hold that decentralization should not be imposed, but done in a respectful manner.

Gauging the appropriate size or scale of decentralized units has been studied in description to the size of sub-units of hospitals and schools, road networks, administrative units in business and public administration, and particularly town and city governmental areas and decision-making bodies.

In making planned communities "new towns", it is for important to determine the appropriate population and geographical size. While in earlier years small towns were considered appropriate, by the 1960s, 60,000 inhabitants was considered the size necessary to support a diversified job market and an adequate shopping center and ordering of services and entertainment. Appropriate size of governmental units for revenue raising also is a consideration.

Even in bioregionalism, which seeks to adjust many functions and even the boundaries of governments according to physical and environmental features, including watershed boundaries and soil and terrain characteristics, appropriate size must be considered. The segment may be larger than many decentralist-bioregionalists prefer.

Decentralization ideally happens as a careful, rational, and orderly process, but it often takes place during times of economic and political crisis, the fall of a regime and the resultant power struggles. Even when it happens slowly, there is a need for experimentation, testing, adjusting, and replicating successful experiments in other contexts. There is no one blueprint for decentralization since it depends on the initial state of a country and the power and views of political interests and whether they support or oppose decentralization.

Decentralization usually is a conscious process based on explicit policies. However, it may occur as "silent decentralization" in the absence of reforms as reconstruct in networks, policy emphasize and resource availability lead inevitably to a more decentralized system.

Decentralization may be uneven and "asymmetric" precondition any one country's population, political, ethnic and other forms of diversity. In numerous countries, political, economic and administrative responsibilities may be decentralized to the larger urban areas, while rural areas are administered by the central government. Decentralization of responsibilities to provinces may be limited only to those provinces or states which want or are capable of handling responsibility. Some privatization may be more appropriate to an urban than a rural area; some types of privatization may be more appropriate for some states and provinces but not others.

Measuring the amount of decentralization, especially politically, is unmanageable because different studies of it use different definitions and measurements. An OECD study quotes Chanchal Kumar Sharma as stating: "a true assessment of the degree of decentralization in a country can be made only if a comprehensive approach is adopted and rather than trying to simplify the syndrome of characteristics into the single dimension of autonomy, interrelationships of various dimensions of decentralization are taken into account."

The academic literature frequently mentions the coming after or as a result of. factors as determinants of decentralization: