Decentralization and Subnational Politics in Asia

Scholarship on decentralization and subnational politics in Asia is burgeoning, with increasing works on the subject produced by researchers within the broader Asia-Pacific region, in addition to the scholarship coming from researchers based in North America, Europe, and Australia. Reflective of heterogeneity in the Asian cases – from some of the world’s geographically smallest states to the two largest populations on earth – the research agenda on decentralization in Asia covers a wide range of topics, including civil conflict and peacebuilding, ethnic and religious influences on electoral politics, and the causes and consequences of regional disparities in economic growth and capacity. Yet, much of this work remains focused on single case studies and heavily driven by specific topics in the political economy of development. Increased production of and attention to region-oriented and global datasets that include Asian cases would result in more comprehensive scholarly understanding of regional-level political processes and outcomes.