Seminar Series: Abstract

Regime Type and Governance in Subnational Vietnam and Indonesia: Multi-methods Nesting of Small-n Analyses in Large-n Study Findings
Alasdair Bowie

Does democracy at the sub-national level make for better sub-national governance in countries where aspects of taxation, service provision and economic management have been devolved to local governments? The “bringing power closer to the people” rationale--one of several--for decentralization presupposed some form of democratic mechanism whereby governance weaknesses would bring adverse consequences for local legislative and executive incumbents. But decentralization has yielded governance improvements even in non-democratic settings. And decentralization in settings that are simultaneously undergoing democratic transition or consolidation has sometimes been associated with declining governance. This paper draws upon large-n study findings on governance in the two countries and uses within country most similar case study analysis to explore the mechanisms by which regime type and governance are connected at the subnational level.