LIST OF WORKSHOPS

In decentralized countries the subnational governments have become the central units for implementing and providing public policies, which has increased their responsibilities and powers. These new responsibilities were followed by greater political, administrative and financial autonomy. In this sense, the requirements to qualify the subnational administration and governance were expanded to respond to its new roles both at the local level and in intergovernmental relations. Considering that, the research question of the workshop is: how does decentralization affect subnational state capacities and the implementation and provision of public policies?

Many countries have implemented the decentralization since the 1980’s, especially the Latin American federations (Argentina, Brazil, Mexico) and unitary countries (Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Uruguay, among others). This process also has characterized European countries such as Germany, Spain, and Switzerland, and dual federations such as United States and Canada. India in Asia is also a relevant case, as Australia in Oceania and Nigeria, Ethiopia, and South Africa in Africa. There are many different routes to decentralization and each national case does not have the same and political, administrative, and financial designs.

The demands imposed by the new responsibilities to the subnational level as a result of decentralized public policies has induced the creation, building and/or strengthening of their state capacities. In this sense, capabilities have become a key element to build and consolidate the autonomy attributed to subnational governments within the framework of decentralizing models. Therefore, the decentralization process requires more capacities in subnational governments. However, the comparative literature on decentralization lacks a more systematic approach linking this process and its effects on subnational state capacities and public policies. This is theoretical and empirical problem still asks more research.

This analytical gap of the decentralization takes on greater relevance after the COVID-19 pandemic because subnational governments were the main sphere responsible for formulating and implementing many public policies. The workshop is proposed in the context of the rapid changes in public administration and territorial governance provoked by the pandemic as a complex intergovernmental problem (Paquet and Schertzer, 2020). Investigating how subnational governments managed to provide service and public policies in this scenario is also linked to the historical design of decentralization in each country with its political, financial, and administrative dimensions. The context of the pandemic crisis is a hallmark for assessing whether subnational state capacities have contributed to improve the public administration and public policies. In this context, the research question is relevant to allow understanding whether national cases of decentralization have been implemented, considering the need to strengthen subnational state capacities as core inputs to implement public policies.

This goal is even more challenging when the problems require high levels of multilevel governance was the case with the COVID-19 pandemic. The complexity and novelty of this problem, considering its spillover effects, challenged countries to develop new intergovernmental policy capacities, especially the subnational units. It is also important to highlight the importance of subnational governments in the 2030 Agenda (Lee, 2023). In short, analyzing decentralization and its effects on subnational governments and their state capacities and public policies, the context after the pandemic and the implementation of the SDGs updates the research question.

The research question is scientifically relevant because decentralization has become a dynamic process through which many federative and unitary countries, at least in the last four decades, have built instruments to delegate responsibilities for public policies to regions and cities. Although, in many cases, the decentralization was not an organized process it stimulated the development of local and/or regional bureaucracies focused on implementing different public policies for many groups of citizens. Somehow, subnational state capacities were developed, but we know little about this side of the decentralization and the consequences in the implementation of public policies.

The research question is also relevant because the effort to approach the literature on decentralization to and the variance of subnational state capacity is more recent, seeking to address their effects on public policies at the territorial level (Luna and Soifer, 2017; Meza, 2021). In general, decentralization promised better democratic governance, more efficiency for the public administration and public policies more adjusted to needs of citizens. However, over time, many problems and challenges still persist, such as territorial inequality, poor quality of life, corruption, poor performance in providing services to citizens, reduced own-source revenues, and weak democratic governance, at least in less developed countries. These issues have become even more important after the pandemic because changes in the economic and social context have hit affected the people’s lives in the territories harder (Peters, Grin, and Abrucio, 2021).

This state-of-the-art seeks to approach two strands of literature based on the assumption that subnational administrative, technical, institutional, and political state capacities are pivotal for a sustainable decentralization and good public policies at the territorial level (Andrews, Pritchett, and Woolcock, 2017; OECD, 2019). Considering this current debate, the contributions expected from workshop participants are focused on connecting these three topics – decentralization, state capacity, and public policies (Smith, 2023). We hope that participants from federations and unitary countries will contribute to deepening the knowledge around these issues, both theoretically and empirically, to advance the understanding of this research topic.

This workshop builds on existing research considering the need to approach the three theorical strands. There are many works that addresses decentralization and public policies, as well as a literature that analyzes state capacities and public policies. However, to advance scientific knowledge of the decentralization process it would be important to consider state capacity as an additional theoretical. The post-COVID-19 pandemic has made this discussion even more relevant, and we hope that this workshop can contribute in this regard. The main hypotheses that the workshop seek to explore are:

1.     The development and variance of subnational state capabilities in decentralization contexts affects the territorial equality and the performance of public policies.

2.     The design and quality of democratic governance in territories are affected by the level of development of subnational state capacities.

3.     The development of subnational state capabilities in decentralization contexts is related to the quality of public administration in combating corruption, increasing own revenues and the performance of bureaucracies.

4.     The development of subnational state capacities affects their role in the multilevel arrangements.

These three hypotheses are original, as they: a) highlight the importance of using the literature on state capabilities to analyze their variance in subnational governments and their effects on public policies and territorial inequality; b) allow analyzing whether the performance of democratic governance in the territories is related to the quality of subnational state capabilities; c) allow us to analyze whether subnational state capabilities helped local governments fulfill key promises of decentralization (less corruption, greater administrative and bureaucratic efficiency and greater potential for generating their own revenue) that would boost better public policies and quality of life in the territories.

This workshop is open to receive papers focused on developing theoretical, methodological and analytical models that address decentralization, state capacities, and public policies, empirical works both discussing national cases or in a comparative way. We welcome both quantitative or qualitative papers that explore different dimensions of the decentralization (administrative, financial, and political), and different dimensions of state capacity (administrative, technical, institutional, and political). The papers could address sectoral policies or even analyze decentralization in a more general way. The workshop is open to a variety of different types of papers in order to contribute to improve the knowledge on this research topic.

            The sessions will be organized this way. Each author will present their paper in 15 minutes. The discussant will provide feedback and the author will respond. If necessary, the chair and co-chairs may also contribute with additional comments. Next, the discussion will open to participants who will also be asked to read the works, as a way of qualifying comments, questions and the discussion as whole. We hope that each session can contribute to improve the papers aiming at organizing a Special Issue to be submitted to a well-ranked journal. Thus, the chair and co-chair will follow-up the papers in order to contribute with their theoretical, methodological, and empirical research before submitting to the journal.

References

Andrew, M.; L. Prtichett, and M. Woolcock (2017). Building State Capability: Evidence, Analysis, Action. Oxford University Press.

Lee, H. (2023). Strategic  types,  implementation,  and  capabilities: Sustainability  policies  of  local  governments. Public Administration, first published online.

Luna, J. P. and D. H. Soifer (2017). Capturing Subnational Variation in State Capacity: A Survey-Based Approach. American Behavioral Scientist, 61 (8): 887-907.

Meza, O. (2021). Punctuated equilibrium in multilevel contexts: How federal and state level forces feedback into shaping the local policy agenda in Mexico. Policy Studies Journal, 2 (50): 575-594.

OECD (2019). Making Decentralisation Work. A Handbook for Policy-Makers. OECD Publishing
Paquet, M., & Schertzer, R. (2020). COVID-19 as a Complex Intergovernmental Problem. Canadian Journal of Political Science, 53(2), 1-5.

Peters, B. G.; Grin, E. J. & Abrucio, F. L. (2021).  American federal systems and covid-19. Responses to a Complex Intergovernmental Problem. Emerald Publishing.

Smith, B. C. (2023). Decentralization: The Territorial Dimension of the State. Routledge.

In decentralized countries the subnational governments have become the central units for implementing and providing public policies, which has increased their responsibilities and powers. In this sense, the requirements to qualify the subnational administration and governance were expanded to respond to its new roles both at the local level and in intergovernmental relations. Considering that, the research question of the workshop is: how does decentralization affect subnational state capacities and the implementation and provision of public policies?  This workshop invites research scholars to submit papers focused on this question.

The demands imposed by the new responsibilities to the subnational level as a result of decentralized public policies has induced the creation, building and/or strengthening of their state capacities. In this sense, capabilities have become a key element to build and consolidate the autonomy attributed to subnational governments within the framework of decentralizing models. Therefore, the decentralization process requires more capacities in subnational governments. However, the comparative literature on decentralization lacks a more systematic approach linking this process and its effects on subnational state capacities and public policies. This is theoretical and empirical problem still asks more research.

This analytical gap of the decentralization takes on greater relevance after the COVID-19 because subnational governments were the main sphere responsible for implementing many public policies to face the pandemic. This scenario is even more challenging when the problems require high levels of multilevel governance as was the case with the COVID-19 pandemic. The complexity and novelty of this problem, considering its spillover effects, challenged countries to develop new intergovernmental policy capacities, especially the subnational units. It is also important to highlight the importance of subnational governments in the 2030 Agenda. The contributions expected from workshop participants are focused on connecting these three topics – decentralization, state capacity, and public policies. Among others, the workshop seeks to explore the following topics: (1) if he development and variance of subnational state capabilities in decentralization contexts affects the territorial equality and the performance of public policies; (2) if the design and quality of democratic governance in territories are affected by the level of development of subnational state capacities; (3) the development of subnational state capabilities in decentralization contexts is related to the quality of public administration in combating corruption, increasing own revenues and the performance of bureaucracies; (4) the development of subnational state capacities affects their role in the multilevel governance.

This workshop is open to receive papers focused on and developing theoretical, methodological and analytical models that address decentralization, state capacities, and public policies, empirical works both discussing national cases or in a comparative way. We welcome both quantitative or qualitative papers that explore different dimensions of the decentralization (administrative, financial, and political), and different dimensions of state capacity (administrative, technical, institutional, and political). The papers could address sectoral policies or even analyze decentralization in a more general way. The workshop is open to a variety of different types of papers in order to contribute to improve the knowledge on this research topic.

In decentralized countries the subnational governments have become the central units for implementing and providing public policies. The requirements to qualify the subnational administration and governance were expanded to respond to its new roles both at the local level and in intergovernmental relations. This workshop discusses how does decentralization affect subnational state capacities and the implementation and provision of public policies. The comparative literature on decentralization lacks a more systematic approach linking this process and its effects on subnational state capacities and public policies. This is theoretical and empirical problem still asks more research.

This analytical gap of the decentralization takes on greater relevance after the COVID-19 pandemic because subnational governments were the main sphere responsible for implementing public policies. Furthermore, the complexity and novelty of this problem challenged countries to develop new intergovernmental policy capacities, especially the subnational units. It is also important to highlight the importance of subnational governments in the 2030 Agenda.

The workshop addresses these three topics – decentralization, state capacity, and public policies. There are many works that analyze decentralization and public policies, as well as a literature that analyzes state capacities and public policies. To advance scientific knowledge of the decentralization and public policies is also relevant to consider state capacity as a theoretical support. The workshop explores four hypotheses: (i) the development and variance of subnational state capacities in decentralization contexts affects the territorial equality and the performance of public policies; (ii) the design of democratic governance in territories are affected by the level of development of subnational state capacities; (iii) the development of subnational state capabilities in decentralization contexts is related to the quality of public administration in combating corruption, increasing own revenues and the performance of bureaucracies; (iv) the development of subnational state capacities affects their role in the multilevel arrangements.

PhD in Public Administration and Government (Fundação Getulio Vargas-SP), Master’s in Political Science (University of São Paulo), Specialist in Sociology (UFRGS), Bachelor's degree and degree in Social Sciences (UNISINOS). Visiting scholar ar UC Berkeley (2023). Professor at School do Public Policy and Government (FGV-Brasília).  He teaches courses on: a) political system and political institutions in Brazil; b) federalism, decentralization and intergovernmental relations, with an emphasis on municipal management and public policies. Professor at Universidad del Valle (Colômbia) in the PhD Program of Public Administrationt Professor at Oficina Municipal. Professor at Ibero-American School of Public Policy. Professor at the National School of Public Administration. Researcher at Center for Studies in Public Administration and Government in the areas of planning and public policies and studies of decentralization and local government having participated in more than 20 projects with Brazilian municipal governments.. He was a member of the Public Management Qualification and Modernization Commission of the Brazilian Association of Municipalities (2009-2011). He has experience in the field of Public Management with participation in institutional development projects, with an emphasis on decentralization process. He produces didactic material for the public administration. Consultant of World Bank, Interamerican Bank of Development, UNESCO consultant, Natura Institute, British Embassy in Brazil, Latin American Center for Development Administration and Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency. Winner of the award for best work at the National Meeting of Public Administration (2012), and also the best work at the Brazilian Society of Public Administration (2021). Honorable Mention Award in the monograph contest promoted by the Consejo de Adminstración para el Desarrollo (2008). Associate publisher for Latin American of Cadernos Gestão Pública e Cidadania. He is Director of Institutional Relations of Brazillian Society of Public Administration and also is a member of the board of directors of the Local Government Research Committee (IPSA).