The specific service to be decentralized and the type of decentralization will bepend no economies of scale affecting technical efficiency and the degree of spillover effects beyond jurisdictions boundaries. These are issues that need to be taken into account in the design of the decentralized system. In practice, all service do not need to be decentralized in the same way or the same degree. In an important economic sense, the market is the ultimate form of decentralization in that the consumer can acquire product from a choice of suppliers. The nature of most local public service limits this option and establishes a government role in ensuring the provision of these services, but it does not automatically require the public sector be responsible for the delivery of all service. Where it is possible to structure competition either in the delivery of a service, or for the right to deliver the service, the evidence indicates that the service will be delivered more efficiently. Although uncommon in practice, local governments have successfully competed for the right to provide certain local services. In an array of local public service in any particular country, a mix of solutions from deconcentration to managed competition/privatization is likely to co-exist