Why performance-oriented political decentralization matters in good governance and sustainable development : comparison between Japan and Nigeria

Decentralization is synonymous with good governance. In 1970s and 1980s it yielded to the democratic third wave and structural adjustments in developing states. In the 1990s, too, policy and development writers espoused wide-range ideas on the importance of decentralization to development, based on wider autonomy and fiscal powers. Three decades after, government systems with political decentralization have little or no record of performance. While Japan and Britain with Unitary constitutions have employed canny features of federalism to decentralized and make services work for their local-rural population, but basic services to local people in a number of states that are constitutionally amenable to subsidiarity are elusive. Citizens of such states remain not empowered citizens, and their local governments mere decorative units ridden with mediocres and self-serving leaders. The paper problematizes these shortcomings, causes and remedies- with comparative study of Japan and Nigeria