Despite the rhetoric, central governments generally do not undertake decentralization reforms in order to enhance efficiency or accountability. They do so in order to promote complex and varied political agendas. As a result, the best intentions of decentralization reform advocacy can easily be frustrated if it does take into cognizance the political goals and incentives that structure the decentralization process. This paper seeks to highlight the political economy dimension of decentralization and how the incentives frame the course of the decentralization reform design.