The Role of Economic Performance on the Emergence of Recentralisation: Colombia, 1994-2014

• In Event: Recentralisation and Electoral Preferences at the Subnational Level

Abstract

The existing hypotheses on recentralisation in some other developing and emerging economies cannot account for Colombia’s recentralisation reforms (1994-2014). Parting from this case study, this paper makes three specific contributions to the research programme on recentralisation. It suggests an analytical framework for the study of recentralisation. Using the process-tracing method, it explores the emergence of the unexpected recentralising reforms in Colombia. And it also proposes a hypothesis on the role of economic performance on the emergence of fiscal and administrative recentralising reforms focused on the context and causal mechanisms. The role of both economic recession and economic boom depends on the existing territorial dominance path (national or subnational). Economic recession will tend to subvert the existing path while economic boom will tend to reinforce it. The economic performance is connected with recentralisation reforms through different causal mechanisms (including political learning).

Author

• Julian D Lopez-Murcia, University of Oxford