31607

WiSe 21/22: Intergovernmental Relations & Local Economic Development

Prof. Dr. rer. pol. Elguja Khokrishvili

Information for students

This course is a block course held over 6 weeks from November 11 to December 17. Please check the dates!

Comments

In the current era of state reform, everybody seems to agree that decentralization of government is a good thing – governments themselves, aid donors and other international agencies, many of the citizens of various countries, and certainly many academic writers on good governance, public service reform and development. The case for decentralization is argued on both political grounds – as strengthening democracy, accountability and participation by bringing government 'closer' to its citizens - and economic grounds, those of enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of public service provision. Decentralization is also seen by many agencies as being effective in promoting local economic development. The course is divided into three parts. The first part discusses the process of fiscal decentralization. Distinctions between various types of fiscal decentralization are outlined and discussed. A variety of theoretical perspectives of fiscal decentralization, fiscal federalism, and expenditure and revenue assignments are presented. In the second part, attention is given to the fiscal decentralization reforms in developing countries and lessons learned, as well as their implications for both constraints and opportunities for further reform steps in Georgia. The third part provides an introduction to Local Economic Development (LED) and examines the context of LED activity and action within an increasingly globalized economy. It focuses on how to organize the effort for the strategic planning of local economic development, and it explores the role that LED strategic planning has in strengthening the local economy. close