Education 'Decentralization' Processes in Mexico and Nicaragua: Legislative versus ministry-led reform strategies

Much of the development community has advocated decentralization of basic education, and many countries have implemented some form of decentralization policy. This paper explores one important facet of the reform process: the relationship between the creation of official legislation, on the one hand, and the actual implementation of changes in governance, on the other. Most countries have, like Mexico, followed a strategy of legislation first and actual reform second. Nicaragua pursued a very different strategy, implementing significant changes in governance with little legal framework. Each strategy had benefits and pitfalls, but the comparison of the two experiences illustrates that prioritizing the creation of a legislative framework, as most countries have done, is no golden rule. Reforming governments have important lessons to learn from considering the attributes of both strategies to allow enough flexibility to facilitate learning by doing and to minimize wasted administrative effort and political capital, without jeopardizing the reform because of uncertainty and a lack of transparency.