Public performance and decentralisation in emerging countries

Contrary to classical paradigms, some specific types of decentralization are increasing the incentives that drive corruption; particularly in already corrupt environments, where local mechanisms of accountability are weaker than national ones. To support this analytical claim, I used a focus group case study on decentralization in Venezuela with the participation of political and community leaders. From the case study, I found that two problems are currently undermining accountability and efficiency at a subnational level of government. The two problems are municipal atomization and lack of subnational tax collecting autonomy. As an answer to these relevant issues, a feasible policy reform would be to decrease the quantity of subnational governments by consolidating poor and unpopulated units into relatively more accountable organizations of governance. Another practical reform would be to improve efficiency by empowering regional and local governments to change the rates of at least one important tax.