Informal Institutions and State Reform: Analysis of the decentralization process in Colombia

Abstract

In the present study, which is part of the doctoral research, we seek, first of all, to approach the process of Latin American decentralization as a whole to observe its progress and its most visible difficulties, highlighting the importance of institutionality (both formal and informal) in the levels of success or failure of these reforms. Next, we take the Colombian case to carry out a two-way review: first, we look at the institutional design that frame this transfer of competencies, and then, through a case study, highlight points of importance within the local contexts that mark the prevalence (and sometimes strengthening) of non-democratic mechanisms after the decentralization reforms. We conclude this work by emphasizing the need to review not only the formal issues involved in a new role of the local sphere, but also the informal issues traced by social conceptions around the public, the role of state agencies, and citizens themselves in the definition of objectives and in the implementation of mechanisms to achieve them jointly in pursuit of the common good.