Most countries divide responsibility between a national (federal or central) government, which typically handles defense, foreign policy, monetary policy, and national infrastructure, and subnational governments (states, provinces, or local councils), which typically handle services closer to daily life -- primary healthcare clinics, local roads, markets, waste collection, and primary education. Decentralization -- shifting more authority and budget to subnational levels -- is a common governance reform because local officials are theoretically closer to the problems and more accountable to the people directly affected, though in practice its success depends heavily on whether local governments actually receive the funding and capacity to match their new responsibilities, a gap that undermines decentralization efforts in many developing contexts.