Work

Can Developing Countries Both Decentralize and Depoliticize Urban Water Services? Evaluating the Legacy of the 1990s Reform Wave

Year: 2014

Type: article

Abstract: Over the past three decades, decentralization and reforms designed to insulate service providers from interference by elected officials (“insulating reforms”), such as corporatization and privatization, swept through the urban water and sanitation sector in developing countries. We argue that their rationales were contradictory; decentralization was intended to increase citizen participation and influence, whereas corporatization and privatization were intended to depoliticize management. We document the widespread promotion and adoption of these reforms, and conclude that decentralization made it difficult to insulate service provision in practice. We argue that studying how institutional reforms interact with one another can help explain reform consequences.

Source: World Development

DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.06.026

Authors: Veronica Herrera, Alison E. Post

Institutions: University of Connecticut, University of California, Berkeley

Language: English

Topic: Water Governance and Infrastructure

Subfield: Political Science and International Relations

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Peace, justice, and strong institutions, Clean water and sanitation, Sustainable cities and communities

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $5,895