Decentralization has become a dominant mantra in many development programs throughout the world. The reasoning seems sound enough. The larger the government unit, the more remote it is from popular control, the less accountable it will become. To solve the problem, decentralization is advocated by many policy analysts as the best way of putting control (back?) into the hands of the people, where public officials will be held accountable, and where public funds have the greatest chance of responding to local needs and local conditions. Moreover, at the local level, where citizens can observe the actions of public officials firsthand, corruption can be difficult to hide and relatively easy to control. This logic goes even further: take public programs out of the hands of public officials and turn them over to local civil society organizations, which, having a popular base of support, will be the most efficient, transparent, and noncorrupt administrators of public services. Copyright © 2009, University of Pittsburgh Press. All rights reserved.