Global Processes and Local Consequences of Decentralization: A Sub-national Comparison in Mexico

Topal A. Global processes and local consequences of decentralization: a sub-national comparison in Mexico, Regional Studies. This paper argues that through decentralization policies, the imperatives of neoliberal rules of competition have been diffused into the local level, generating different development patterns depending upon characteristics of the local economy and its insertion into global processes. Therefore, implications of decentralization policies can be analysed by focusing on prevailing local economic activity and a particular pattern of class forces that arise from it. The paper attempts to make the case that how each local economy integrates into global economic processes, and which economic and social groups are empowered and/or disempowered in that integration, shape the pattern of local development.