Devolution and the efficiency of cultural heritage preservation: the case of regional museums in the Czech Republic

This article analyzes the impact of devolution on the efficiency of regional museums in the Czech Republic, a country with a more than 40-year communist history. According to our results, devolution in the Czech Republic did not lead to increased efficiency, contrary to what the general theory of decentralization assumes. In our opinion, this situation is caused by path dependency, the frozen public administration reform, and the conservative approach of managers in the cultural heritage sector. It also shows that one-size-fits-all decentralization policy can have contradictory effects under specific conditions. Additionally, it is clear that the impacts of decentralization must be seen in greater detail and that we must distinguish among the effects of individual types of decentralization.