The Past, Present, and Future of Decentralisation in Africa: A Comparative Case Study of Local Government Development Trajectories of Ghana and Uganda

This article applies evolutionary theory of path dependency to explain the past, present, and future trajectories of decentralisation and local government (LG) institutional development in Ghana and Uganda. The article argues that in the pursuit of local governance, Uganda followed a sequence of political, administrative, and fiscal decentralisation whereas Ghana pursued an administrative, political, and fiscal decentralization. As a result, Uganda has made a little progress but more than Ghana's, in strengthening LG institutions. However, given that neither Uganda nor Ghana followed an ideal sequence of decentralisation reforms that would have strengthened LGs against unbridled central government (CG) interference, currently CGs in both countries are retaking much of what was initially decentralized. The article concludes that recentralization and further weakening of LGs are likely to continue in both countries and much of Africa because the initial path that was created benefited CG politicians and bureaucrats and they are committed to staying on that course.