This study reviews a variety of recent experienc with decentralization in a large number of developing countries The review indicates that to date, no one has demonstrated conclusively that decentralization actually solves the problems noted earlier or that it is necessarily more cost-effective than centralization. The study shows that decentralization is not a "quick fix" for the management problems of developing countries The factors that make it such an attractive policy are usually the same ones that make it difficult to implement In general, we ound little evidence to contest the conclusions of a United Nations (1982, 6) assessment that "the actual impact of decentralization for effective administration has been very limited