Decentralization is a global movement. Writing in 1994, William Dillinger in his paper "Decentralization and its Implications for Urban Service Delivery" noted that of the 75 countries with populations in excess of 5 million, all but 12 had embarked on some form of a transfer of authority and responsibility from the central to the lower tiers of government. There is no fresh count of countries that have taken the decentralization route, but the explosion...