Decentralization of Power in Post-Colonial States

Abstract

In the early 1970s, most of the existing states were characterized by centralized states. Today, almost all democracies in the world elect regional governments and local self-government bodies.
The processes of decentralization have led to managerial transformations in states with different state structures (federative, unitary and regionalized states). For Ukraine, studying the experience of
post-colonial countries, in the context of reforming public authority, can provide answers to solving very important issues. The paper objective is to analyze the practices of decentralization of power in post-colonial countries of the world in the context of local self-government development. The term “post-colonial countries” is de ned as any of the newly formed national states that
have emerged in the process of decolonization in the period after the collapse of colonial systems. The UN formulated recommendations de ning the basic principles of democratic, constitutional,
legal and administrative aspects of local self-government reform and decentralization. At the same time, “they must be applied to speci c conditions of the state form of government (federal, regionalized or unitary) with different state traditions...The UN is actively working on assisting post-colonial countries in decentralization. In particular, the “Development Program – Angola. Decentralization and Local Governance “, was developed in 2004. Angola (a former Portuguese colony) experienced a long civil war (1975-2002). Today, almost all of the metropolises have handed over much of the internal affairs to local authorities to former colonies, but retaining a solution to some issues of military and defense plans, foreign policy, etc. In connection with such tendencies, scientists have called this phenomenon as “post-colonial model of decentralization”. The analysis of post-colonial countries that carry out decentralization is of great importance to countries that are on the path to reforming public power. First, it allows comparing the experience of managing the least organic, remote parts of territorial-political systems. Second, we can talk about the development of decentralization processes, the combination of self-government with the preservation of the authorities, representing the former metropolis. Thirdly, great interest is represented by models
that lead to the integration of overseas territories within the national system or which, in the long run, may lead to the formation of new independent states.