R Rethinking the Vicissitudes of Decentralized Governance in Ghana Alex Osei-Kojo 1 and Justice Nyigmah Bawole 2 1 School of Public Affairs, University of Colorado Denver, Denver, CO, USA 2 Department of Public Administration and Health Services Management, University of Ghana Business School, Accra, Ghana Synonyms Accountability; Decentralization; Efficiency; Ghana; Local government; Path dependence Introduction Achieving an effective and efficient government remain a persistent challenge for governments in both developed and developing countries; this has led to frequent experiments with different con- cepts. One of such concepts is decentralization, which was in vogue during the 1980s particularly among governments in developing countries (Rondinelli and Cheema 1983). Proponents of decentralization hailed the concept as key to achieving accountability and efficiency in local governance. Indeed, Faguet (1997) suggests that decentralization is the panacea for corruption, clientelism, and political alienation often associated with centralized government. Simi- larly, Bardhan and Mookherjee (2006) conclude that decentralization creates opportunities for cit- izens to communicate their preferences and views to elected officials, which ultimately leads to greater participation and responsiveness. Ghana’ s experiment with decentralization dates back to 1957 when the country gained inde- pendence from British rule (Ayee 1996). Yet, the current structure of a four-tier metropolitan, three- tier municipal, and district assembly system was adopted in 1992, following promulgation of the Fourth Republican Constitution of Ghana (Ahwoi 2010). Based on this structure, there are three categories of local government bodies: Metropol- itan assemblies, municipal assemblies, and district assemblies. Current records indicate that there are 216 metropolitan, municipal and district assem- blies in Ghana. Despite Ghana’ s relatively long experiment with decentralization, students and scholars of public administration conclude that the outcomes of decentralization in Ghana have been generally disappointing (Crawford 2009). In explaining the disappointing outcomes of decentralization, Ayee (1996, pp. 48–49) claims that “... the decentrali- zation program failed to achieve its stated objec- tives because the government did not provide the legal basis for it prior to the establishment of the District Assemblies... the initiative to change the framework has to come from the government.” Further, Crawford (2009, p. 58) suggests that the deficiencies of decentralization in Ghana reflect a # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018 A. Farazmand (ed.), Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_3614-1