Decentralization after the Great Recession: fine-tuning or paradigm change?

Abstract

The general question addressed in this special issue of Regional Studies is whether the Great Recession of 2008 affected the political consensus about decentralization and the conventional wisdom about its impact on economic, political and social outcomes. The present introduction emphasizes the two main lines of enquiry that cut across all the papers in this issue. First, the effects of the Great Recession on the relations between national and subnational governments; and second, the differences in political, economic and fiscal performance across countries depending on the extent and quality of the institutions supporting both political and fiscal decentralization.