Part of Series
As if by unseen signal toward the end of the 1980s, many Latin American governments suddenly transferred money and decision-making power to local municipalities. At the same time, national authorities allowed local governments to choose their leaders in free and open elections. The resulting revolution has been profound in its reach and stunning in the silent shift of power from central to local authorities. The Quiet Revolution traces the growth and effects of decentralization and democratization in Latin America throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Based on first-hand accounts from mayors, local officials, and neighborhood leaders, Tim Campbell focuses on those cities and towns that made the most of their new intergovernmental arrangements. He further argues that the reforms, which are vital to long-term sustainable growth in the region, are in danger of being smothered by current policy responses from national and international institutions. Campbell's research, conducted over a ten-year span, counters conventional wisdom about the role of development banks in the process of state reform and offers timely insights into similar events taking place in other parts of the world.
Author
Tim Campbell worked for more than 40 years in urban development with experience in scores of countries and hundreds of cities in Latin America, South and East Asia, Eastern Europe, and Africa. He retired from the World Bank in 2005 after 17 years in the urban sector. He is currently a Woodrow Wilson Global Fellow. His areas of expertise include city learning, innovation, smart cities, strategic urban planning, city development strategies, decentralization, urban policy, and social and poverty impact of urban development. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from U. C. Berkeley (1966), a Masters in City and Regional Planning from U.C. Berkeley (1970), and a Ph.D. in Urban Studies and Planning from M.I.T. (1980). Campbell is currently Chairman of the Urban Age Institute.
