Emerging Concepts of Decentralization and Governance
As the concept of decentralization evolved over the past half century, it has
taken on increasingly more diverse and varied meanings, objectives, and forms.5
The first wave of post–World War II thinking on decentralization, in the 1970s
and 1980s, focused on deconcentrating hierarchical government structures and
bureaucracies.6 The second wave of decentralization, beginning in the mid-1980s,
broadened the concept to include political power sharing, democratization, and
market liberalization, expanding the scope for private sector decisionmaking.
During the 1990s decentralization was seen as a way of opening governance towider public participation through organizations of civil society.