This book tackles the question of how to characterise and account for recentralisation in Colombia between central and lower levels of government across a 26-year period. Around the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has once again put the distribution of responsibilities, resources, and authority between different levels of government at the heart of political debate. This book brings this issue to light as a topic central to the study of public administration.Drawing on extensive fi eldwork with more than a hundred interviews with former presidents, ministers, members of congress, governors, local mayors and subnational public offi cials, as well as documentary sources, it begins with a historical account of recentralisation processes in the world. It then proposes a theoretical framework to explain these processes, before tracing and carefully comparing recentralisation episodes in Colombia using theory-guided process tracing.

Julián D. López-Murcia is Associate Professor at the Universidad de La Sabana, Colombia.

1. Look Whos's Back: Recentralisation in Colombia.- 2. Recentralisation Around the World: Economic, Political and Administrative Explanations.- 3. An Interactive and Cross-Temporal Framework to Explain Recentralisation.- 4. Before the Recentralisation Trend. in Columbia- 5. No Economic Crisis in a Decentralised Context: The Samper Administration (1994-1998).- 6. An Economic Crisis in a Decentralised Context: The Pastrana Administration (1998-2002).- 7. An Economic Boom in a Recentralised Context: The Uribe Administration (2002-2010).- 8. An Economic Boom in a Recentralised Context: The Santos Administration (2010-2018).- 9. An Economic Crisis in a Recentralised Context: The Duque Administration (2018-).- 10. Taking Stock: "Taxonomy", Heresthetic Strategies, Contributions and Pending Questions.