Abstract:
Decentralisation as an analytical concept in local government seems much
overused. Yet, the definitional debate tends to defy consensus in academia. The
obverse is true. Devolution, a closely-related concept, seems hardly referred to in
local government discourse. Yet, it is a definite analytical concept, with specific
reference to local government in federal states. This article attempts to enter the
devolution terrain and proposes that local government functioning in South Africa
is more one of devolution than outright decentralisation. The article contributes
to the wealth of knowledge in Public Administration and Management in that the
pre-eminence of the two concepts are pitted against each other in an assessment
of effectiveness. This allows practitioners to gauge the strengths and limitations of
systems and work towards improvement. The settings are twofold: an evaluation of
local government decentralisation in Ghana; and an evaluation of local government
devolution in South Africa. The methodology is largely a literature review, though
scant use of observation is unavoidable. The end results of the diagnosis appear
similar in the two settings. Decentralisation tends to rob the citizenry of outright
power of policy-making and implementation, thereby creating a democratic deficit;
while devolution and its power of autonomy are prone to a potential lack of capacity
and much abuse of scarce resources.
