Ibero-American subnational governments — especially municipalities — have evidenced numerous transformations during the last thirty years. A central characteristic of them has been the increase in responsibilities and powers at these levels of government, generally within the framework of decentralization and reform processes of national States. Much has been researched about the decentralizing models initiated in the 1980s and 1990s and much less about recent re-centralizing trends in the region. Generally, in both cases these processes have been examined from the perspective of national governments and from the analysis of sectoral policies related to rules and arrangements of intergovernmental relations.

As discussed in the chapters of the book, given the demands imposed by the new powers and resources transferred from national governments as a result of decentralizing policies, as well as by the inexorable process of urbanization and the increase in citizen demand after successive crises national socioeconomic, it became essential to assume a process of creation, reconstruction and/or strengthening of the necessary and sufficient capacities for local governments to assume their responsibilities in the most effective and efficient way possible.