Towards a Philosophy of Decentralization

Towards a philosophy of decentralization in developing countries remains a key policy issue for local government and decentralization reforms. There is a general trend that decentralization reforms are not based on home grown prescriptions but highly influenced by the forces and waves from western capitalist states. The western ideologies on decentralization and local governance have often been prescribed for most developing countries on the terms that are not applicable and achievable from the perspective of local environment. Decentralization as a concept is a complicated and multi-dimensional in nature. There is no single dosage that is applicable to all the countries but varies from country to country. Moving towards a philosophy of decentralization in developing countries should not be driven by the western countries but rather from each country specific social, cultural, political and economic background. The assumption of one size fits all approach to philosophy of decentralization should not be a blue print for the developing countries. One cannot generalize on how to move towards a philosophy of decentralization but accept that there are disparities from country to another