Forms of administrative decentralization
- De-concentration involves central government dispersing staff responsibilities to regional offices without changing the basis for authority and control. This is not true decentralization and can actually increase central control and influence.
- Delegation is the transfer of responsibility for public functions to lower levels of government or to other organizations, which implement programs on behalf of the central government.
- Devolution: Local governments are assigned clear and legally recognized geographical boundaries over which they exercise authority, and within which they perform public functions (e.g. raising revenues, investment decisions). It is this type of administrative decentralization that underlies most political decentralization.