The decentralization consists of a transfer of capacities between two distinct moral persons.

One distinguishes territorial decentralization which applies to the local government agencies and technical decentralization - or functional calculus concerning the specialized institutions equipped with the Legal entity like the public corporations.

Major types of decentralization

According to the Professor Refusals A. Rondinelli of the University of Wisconsin and supported by Professor Echraf Ouedrago of the University Laval, there would be four major types of decentralization:

• an administrative decentralization (Devolution * )
  

• a functional decentralization (Delegation)
  
• a political decentralization (Devolution)
  
• a structural decentralization (Privatization)
  

* administrative decentralization returning to devolution must be perceived in its broad direction and can not be appropriate for all interpretations of decentralization. Indeed decentralization is accompanied by a transfer of capacities on definite fields of competence what is not the case in the devolution (for example, in France the Prefect which represents the government in each department does not hold clean capacities but enjoys an authority in the application of what is decided by the government).

Decentralization by country

Decentralization in France

France, which preserved the optics of a " republic one and indivisible" even appears little decentralized compared to its adjoining countries, who generally give greater liberty of action to their areas, have a federal structure clearly .

Institutional decentralization

Decentralization is the fact for the State of transferring from competences to moral persons that it created (in opposition to the Déconcentration, which is the transfer of competence inside the State, there is not creation of moral person). These moral persons can have general vocation (territorial decentralization = the territorial collectivities which are competent for all the businesses of their territory) or specific vocation (functional decentralization = the public corporations, who are competent only for what their statutes determine). There exists a third category of decentralization, additional, which gathers the particular cases of the Banque de France and the groups of public interest.

Territorial decentralization

• "Territorial decentralization aims giving to the Local government agencies clean competences, distinct from those of the State, making elect their authorities by the population and at thus ensuring a better balance of power on the whole of the territory. Decentralization brings the decision-making process closer to the citizens, supporting the emergence of a Démocratie of proximity. It takes its complete significance when it gives to these communities a sufficient control of the financial resources which are necessary for them.
• the Déconcentration is a quite distinct concept; it aims at improving the effectiveness of the action of the State by délégant certain attributions of the central administrative level to the local civils servant, i.e. with the Préfet S, the departmental directors of the services of the State or their subordinates " (National Assembly).

Application of territorial decentralization

In France, the first laws of decentralization go back to the August 10th, 1871 and April 5th, 1884. These laws respectively organized the administration of the department and placed the General advice like determined the mode of municipal authorities with two authorities: the Mayor and the Municipal council. At that time, competences of the departments and communes were very limited. It is the prefect which held the executive power of the department. Until 1982, he exerted a control very narrow, known as of supervision, on the acts of the Territorial collectivities (authorization of cancellation and system of approval).

The law Removes iron promulgated on March 2nd, 1982 by the Gouvernement of Pierre Mauroy and regarded as act I of decentralization, all its range gives him while bringing three major innovations:

1. suppression of the administrative supervision a priori exerted by the prefect, replaced by a control of legality a posteriori exerted by the administrative court and the Regional court of the accounts.
2. transfer the departmental executive of the prefect to the President of the General advice.
3. sets up the area in Territorial collectivity of full exercise.

Following the law Removes iron, the laws of the January 7th, 1983 and July 22nd, 1983 will distribute competences between the State and the territorial collectivities and will found the transfer of resources.

These various laws make following the first attempt, missed, of the general De Gaulle of Régionalisation (failure of the referendum of April 1969). The decentralization of 1982-1983 fact following the recommendations of the " report/ratio; To live ensemble" of Olivier Guichard, but especially with the new political context of 1977, date of the municipal elections gained by a political new generation and the Socialist party.

The government of Jean-Pierre Raffarin gave on the political diary the reform of decentralization between 2002 and 2004, in particular with the constitutional law of March 28th, 2003 relating to the decentralized organization of the French Republic. This law posed the principle of the financial autonomy of the Territorial collectivities and included the " terms; région" and " décentralisation" in the Constitution. It also founded the local decisional Référundum and a Droit of petition. The results of the reform are considered to be disappointing as a whole, so that the question of an Act III is posed.

Methods of territorial decentralization

Territorial decentralization is entrusted to the Territorial collectivities which lay out of a Legal entity, of a decision-making power, an administrative autonomy, a clean personnel and clean goods and services. Authorities of the territorial collectivities (Presidents of the General advice, District council|Regional]], etc) are representatives elected under the control of the representatives of the State (Préfet S). It is the State which determines competences of these communities. The Councils Municipal, General and Régional are elected by the universal direct suffrage and the executives of these communities are elected by the members of the bodies deliberating in their center. There exists a constitutional base of the administrative autonomy in article 72 of the Constitution: “Under the conditions envisaged by the law, these communities are managed freely by elected councils and have a lawful capacity for the exercise of their competences”.

One of the principal virtues of decentralization is to adapt the Public policies closest to the needs for the population. That can however introduce new imbalances within the territory, because of policy options different and from the inequality from the resources from the territorial collectivities. Some see it like a risk, others like a latitude to seize opportunities at the local level. Always it is that it can hardly be done without a financial Péréquation which, without persecuting the dynamic zones and at strong potential, prevents that some others are far too underprivileged.

Functional decentralization

See also: Public corporation

It will appear as from the moment when a moral person of public law (State or Territorial collectivity) decides not to manage an activity but to transfer her management to a distinct body which one calls public corporation.

The public corporation will have a certain autonomy which will be able to appear on the level of the budget and also a certain freedom of management to fine techniques. The establishments are generally subjected to a principle of speciality (for example, the Université is a public corporation charged to manage higher education).

The establishment is equipped with the Legal entity; it is thus a moral person distinct from the person who creates it. But the public corporations do not have the same protection as territorial collectivities, since they can always be removed by the person who created them, while for the communities, the State (which created them) cannot, for political reasons, to remove them.

In spite of the theoretical freedom of management of the public corporations, it arrives often in practice that the creative moral person holds in fact the reins (establishment often being useful for hiding illegal budgetary operations). Moreover, there exists a control of supervision exerted by the Minister in report/ratio for the national public corporations and by the territorial collectivities for the local public corporations.

Particular cases

Banque de France

Groups of public interest

Economic decentralization

The term decentralization also indicates a policy of Town and country planning aiming at decreasing the relative weight of Paris and its area in the territorial development. One also spoke about industrial Déconcentration, in particular in the middle of the years 1950 in France, where the State sought to leave industries the Paris region with an aim of a exogenic Développement of the territories of the Province. This downward logic will highly be criticized by holding of the Local development, as of the middle of the years 1960.

In France, important territorial disparities led to this type of decentralization. The area Île-de-France indeed concentrates a sixth of the Population and Economic activity, while in province, except for the big cities, of many places are désertifient in a way considered to be worrying.

It is in this context that a burning policy of town and country planning in the Années 1960 thanks to the formation of the Délégation was implemented at Town and country planning and the Regional Action (DATAR). This decentralization was done in particular by the means of creations of metropolises of balance.

Decentralization in Kampuchea

Since 2002, installation of the process of devolution at Kampuchea (all capacities being hitherto concentrated in the hands of the Prime Minister Hun Sen). Development of the Commune Development Planning (CDP) aiming has to transfer the decisional capacity to the communes for the questions from economic development, via procedures of Participative democracy. The Kampuchean example is notable as much by the stake that by the structure installation to ensure the transition towards a decentralized system. See in particular the site of organizations GTZ, Concern, VBNK, Oxfam, Pact Cambodia to develop this article.

Decentralization in Mali

The Mali is a country of West Africa which undertook the reform of decentralization by a complete recasting of the territorial cutting inherited the French colonial administration. This daring approach led to the creation of 684 communes in 1996, with the development of a code of the territorial collectivities, with the creation of a news (8th) Institution of the Republic of Mali (the High council of the territorial collectivities), like with the adoption of a policy of decentralization 2005-2014.

The object is of course to transfer management from the local businesses closest to the populations concerned. The transfer of competences must be accompanied by the transfer of the essential resources to manage these competences, which they are human, financial or material. The first transfers of competence intervened in the social domains (education, health), of hydraulics; some actions start with regard to the natural field and stock management.

The process of implementation of decentralization is slow, but progresses in spite of the difficulties. The place of information, in particular in the budgetary transparency, has a great role in the effective implication and the good citizenship of the citizens.

The reinforcement of the territorial collectivities (training of the elected officials, of the civils servant assigned to the communities) for the transparent and democratic management of the communes is a priority.

For more information, you can in particular consult the page on the Mali (subdivisions and other bonds), the history of decentralization in Mali, the implementation of decentralization in Mali: “Assessment and prospects 2006”, the state of the transfer of competence and financial resources of the state to the Territorial collectivities 2007 and factors of appropriation of decentralization and the local governorship.

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