Abstract:
This article argues that there are several assumptions that guide and shape the issues
of decentralisation and partnership in creating a responsible and citizen-focused
public service in South Africa, in developed countries and in other developing
countries. The first assumption is that decentralisation as a normative ideal ought to
be pursued everywhere. The second assumption is that public administrators simply
need to make decentralisation work for the citizenry and not question it at all. The
third assumption is that decentralisation can work because centralisation has not.
The fourth assumption is that if decentralisation is not working in the interests of
the citizenry the fault lies elsewhere than with decentralisation itself – the corollary
of this is to be found in the assumption where two public administrators simply
need to find ways of making it work in the interests of the citizenry. And the fifth
assumption is that centralisation equals bad and decentralisation equals good and
the corollary of this is that states ought to pursue decentralisation both as an end
and as a means to an end.
