Managing Urbanization Under a Decentralized Governance Framework (Volume 2) is a companion piece to Volume 1, which offers the institutional details of managing and delivering urban services. This second volume, meanwhile, explores the setting in which these services are being delivered--one of rapid urbanization mostly unaccompanied by balanced regional growth--and the forces that have helped shape this environment. During the past two decades, the government made several attempts to achieve a less Manila-focused distribution of economic power and political authority. These include industrial promotion schemes that explicitly sought to attract investments into other regions. In 1991, it passed the Local Government Code--envisioned to further fuel the decentralization process. The outcome is there for all to see: no high levels of investments surged outside Metro Manila; consequently, there has been no sensational shift in local development patterns since the decentralizing measures were introduced. This book explains why, and suggests that the prospect of economic convergence between Metro Manila and the rest of the country would be gradual rather than dramatic.