Recentralisation and its causes: Colombia, 1994-2014

Thesis

This thesis aims to explain why and how after a comprehensive set of decentralising processes, Colombia experienced significant recentralising policies and reforms (1994-2014). These changes emerged not only against what was expected by leading works on decentralisation in Latin America, but in a way that the existing hypotheses on recentralisation cannot fully account for. This is a hypothesis-generating case study.

The growing literature on recentralisation is still very limited. With few exceptions, there are no big theoretical efforts. In general, the case studies assume temporal causal homogeneity. The analyses are excessively focused on the impact of only one type of factor (economic, political or administrative), instead of on the interactions between them. And they are excessively focused on the national governments, while neglecting the explanation of the role of legislators and subnational authorities.

Using process-tracing and combining evidence from documentary sources and elite interviews, the thesis suggests that Colombia's recentralisation was an outcome of the interaction between economic inputs and institutional context. When an economic crisis takes place in a decentralised context, one can expect an increase of recentralisation. If an economic boom occurs in the same context, one should expect a decrease of recentralisation. If there is an economic crisis in a recentralised context, one can expect less recentralisation. If, instead, an economic boom occurs in the same context, one should expect even more recentralisation. The causal mechanisms are self-destroying/self-reinforcing dynamics.

The thesis provides a deep analysis of the Colombian case plus an updated review of the literature. It also aims to tackle the main definitional issues and brings new concepts for the analysis of the recentralising strategies used by national and intermediate levels of government. Noteworthy, it offers a hypothesis that identifies the relevance of changing institutional contexts, the interactions between different types of factors, and the role of legislators and subnational authorities. Still, this thesis does not aim to propose a general theory of recentralisation.

Authors: López-Murcia, JD

• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford