Political fragmentation, decentralization and development cooperation: Ecuador in the Latin American context

Abstract

"Decentralization reforms have been among the most important aspects of state modernization in developing countries. From a normative perspective, such reforms are expected to promote economic development and democratization. Unfortunately, however, the course of real decentralization processes has often been incoherent and defective. In this context, this study analyses the challenges for successful decentralization in fragmented polities focusing on Latin America and the special case of Ecuador. Based on a political economy perspective on decentralization, we attempt to show, how political fragmentation has affected decentralization. From there, we develop criteria on how development assistance can at least partly counter the negative effects of political fragmentation. Finally, we analyse to which extend donor agencies have been pursuing such strategies in Ecuador. This study is the result of a research project, which has been carried out at the German Development Institute (DIE) in 2004 and 2005 as part of the DIE Post-Graduate Training Course for young professionals. Field research was conducted from February to April 2004. The research project was carried out in close cooperation with the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) in Quito Ecuador, which supported the project from its early stages. Among many FLACSO members, who gave advice and valuable comments on different part of the study's content, the authors especially thank Santiago Ortiz, who has intellectually and logistically supported the project from its beginning. Many thanks also go to the GTZ program on decentralization in Ecuador. Janos Zimmermann and his team provided us with many valuable insights about the decentralization process in Ecuador and development cooperation’s attempts to foster subsidiarity oriented state structures. We also profited much from different presentations of the study’s preliminary results at FLACSO in Quito and at the Interamerican Development Bank and the World Bank in Washington, where the respective staff members constructively commented our findings. In Bonn, our colleagues at the DIE also offered useful comments and constructive criticism. Special thanks go to Matthias Krause, Tilman Altenburg and Oliver Schlumberger. Finally, we would like to thank Gisela Kuhlmann, without whose skills and patience, the technical process of editing this study would never have come to an end." [author's abstract]