Decentralising Water Resource Management in Brazil
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Recent studies of decentralisation of natural-resource management have advanced two related claims: participation of municipalities encourages downward accountability to local populations and single-issue decentralisation encourages upward accountability to higher levels of government. This contribution examines a case at the intersection of these arguments: participation of municipalities in single-issue decentralisation. Evidence from Brazil's water-resource decentralisation indicates that participation of municipalities is not the best indicator of downward accountability; rather, the nature of social and business groups, and mechanisms that encourage their participation, better predict downward accountability. New territories of single-issue decentralisation may have unintended positive effects on downward accountability.
