Recentralization, intergovernmental conflicts and territorial inequality: perspective of local governments in Peru

Abstract Intergovernmental conflicts, in Latin America’s centralism and the recentralization in Peru, have been more acute over the last 30 years, producing sociopolitical, economic, and cultural problems at subnational levels. Based on the design of the grounded theory of Glasser and Strauss, this sociopolitical phenomenon is analyzed from the perspective of local governments in the Puno region to account for the emerging categories and subcategories of analysis regarding the dynamics of intergovernmental relations (IGR) in the local public policy process. The main argument is that, as a result of centralism, recentralization, and intergovernmental conflicts, territorial inequality reproduces and reinforces at the local level. These are expressed in a dichotomy between the deficit territorial dynamics (backward areas) and entrepreneurial territorial dynamics (growth areas).