Third Wave: 1990s onwards Response to the new public management school of thought, which shifts the role of government from directly delivering services to overseeing service provision. o Decentralization was posited as the means to achieve new management practices and diverse goals posed by new public management.
Central governments are encouraged by decentralization proponents to transfer their responsibility to not only lower levels of governmental but also to private sector or civil society organizations for more efficient or effective service provision.