Decentralization versus Centralization: An analysis of the implementation of Mexico City’s deep drainage system from a policy network perspective.

Abstract

Megaprojects implementation is often complex and marked by unforeseen difficulties, particularly in cases where cost overruns and delays are common. However, the main challenges faced by these projects are not primarily technical but political, stemming from the centralization of implementation processes. To support this argument, I analyze a paradigmatic case: Mexico City’s Deep Outfalls System, developed between 1967 and 1975. This megaproject transitioned from a passive implementation phase characterized by slow progress to an active phase in which unanticipated obstacles were overcome and the project was ultimately completed. I argue that this shift was largely due to the centralization of its implementation process. As evidence, I draw on the meeting minutes of the Technical Supervisory Commission (COTESU) for the Deep Outfalls System—an unpublished source found in the Historical Archive of Mexico City—and analyze them using Social Network Analysis to assess the degree of centralization, understood as the extent to which one actor politically dominates among a set of involved stakeholders. My findings suggest that public policy implementers should establish formal or informal mechanisms of centralization to increase the likelihood of policy success.