| Popis: |
Several Latin American countries have been pursuing an intensive process of fi scal decentralization over the last two decades; and, at the same time, almost the entire region has made changes to its social policies. These two processes refl ect, fi rst, the desire to generate allocation effi ciency gains, which have an impact on expanding the decision- making, fi scal, and fi nancial autonomy of local governments; and, second, the desire to strengthen democracy. The latter has had repercussions on social policy actions and services, generating broader coverage and higher monetary benefi ts, together with improved access, expansion of coverage, and the decentralization of jurisdictions and resources for service provision. In some countries, decentralization was seen as a way to resolve institutional problems caused by a loss of resources and the ability of federal governments to fi nance social policies and restructure service provision, while at the same time adapting to the growing importance of local areas in federative resource sharing and autonomous governance. Besides this, the desire to increase equity and allocation effi ciency has inspired numerous attempts to organize the providers and fi nanciers of services, with a view to improving the balance and match between supply |
