Interacting Capacities: National Bureaucracies’ Contribution to Subnational Performance
Bureaucracies at different government levels often interact on the ground, providing closely related services. While intergovernmental fiscal relations have been broadly studied, scarce literature has explored the contribution of national bureaucracies to achieving subnational policy goals. By reconceptualizing administrative decentralization as coexisting devolution (to subnational governments) and deconcentration (of a national bureaucracy through field units), this research explores the indirect national contribution on subnational performance by delivering associated services. This article tests the following hypotheses: 1) there is a positive effect of national deconcentrated capacity on subnational policy outputs, and 2) in the context of policy overlap, this contribution diminishes with increasing levels of subnational capacity. While Colombian schooling is decentralized, the national government indirectly contributes to education through a highly deconcentrated national agency (ICBF) that administers child and youth protection services. Using panel data for the 33 Colombian subnational governments during 2004-2013, results reveal national capacity boosts indicators of education provision. Meanwhile, the less-endowed subnational governments gain the most from ICBF presence, thus evidencing a marginally decreasing effect of national capacity with higher levels of subnational capacity.
Bello-Gomez, R.A. Interacting Capacities: National Bureaucracies’ Contribution to Subnational Performance. Invitation to revise and resubmit at Public Administration Review.