Governance:
Local Administration and
Development
An Overview of Terms
Governance Issues
• Nature of the Debate: Three Tracks
– Governance
– Civil Society
– Local Government
Overview
The Governance Concept: Issues
1. Sovereignty- Legal Autonomy
(International Law- Defined by
Diplomacy)
2. Transitional vs. Developing
Societies
Governance and Sovereignty
A Renewed Interest- Transition
"[T]ransformation (and globalization) has
led to a reinvention of government and
what it does"
- Bruce
Parrott in Dawisha and Parrott
Transitional vs. Developing
Society
•
Governance- Transitional vs.
Developing states•
There has been a discovery of “new”
problems in Eastern Europe and Central
Asia with the END OF THE COLD WAR
Janine Wedel Book
•
Fragile vs. Collapsed States
Governance: The Cultural
Dimension
• Issue of the Week: Samuel P. Huntingon
• Robert Kaplan, Balkan Ghosts
• The Issue: Is there a “Clash of Cultures”
• Roman Catholic
• Orthodox
• Islam
Governance: an Overview of
Issues
• Basic Terms: The Environment of
Development
Governance Revisited:
• Manner in which the state is created,
modified or overthrown
Governance, and the
Local State
• Sovereignty
– Authority to Govern (Ostrom)
• Presumption of Independence
– A National Government status given by
International Community and by use of
International Law
Governance Issues: Grass Roots
or Micro-Level
Need to Focus on Local Government (not
Local State)
• Primary unit of government that has
both political leadership and
bureaucratic structures
Governance Issues
Civil Society
• Associations and organizations that are
beyond the clan and the family and
short of the state (does not include
state organs)
• Relationship to Democracy
Democracy
The Nature of the Debate
Types of Democracy
Direct Democracy• Actual direct participation of a population in
decision-making about laws and regulations
• Town hall or village model
Types of Democracy: Terms
Indirect DemocracyRepresentation
• Some form of representative
democracy
• Existence of various diverse interest
associations and groups within society
Polyarchy
–Diverse interest associations of
society compete with each other
over policy issues
–Competitive Pluralism
Types of Democracy, cont.
• Cooperative Movements (or
Corporatism)
– Diverse interest associations cooperate
with each other and with organs of the
state to make policy
Democracy: What is it?
“It is only when men learn what it
means to be free, and struggle to
maintain proper limits upon the
exercise of authority so that no one is
allowed to become master of the others
that human beings have the possibility
of creating mutual relationships which
they may freely enter and leave as they
seek mutually productive patterns of
human development." - Vincent Ostrom
Democracy
• Limited
• Institutionalized
• Non-Zero Sum (Win Win)
Democracy: What is it?
The Cynic Revised
“The policy makers have rational
interests--to develop their countries, to
improve the condition of their people,
to acquire or stay in power, or to steal
as much as possible.“Peter Berger, Pyramids of Sacrifice
James Madison and Democracy
The Eighteenth Century Cynic
1. The problem with majorities
2. Tyranny
3. Factions
Direct Democracy vs.
Representative Democracy
• Problem with Populism
– Mob Justice
• Lack of Minority rights
• Shifting majorities and tolerance
• Problem with Plebiscites
• Size and the Need for Indirect Representation
Governance Failure and
Sovereignty
• Rules of the Game politics:
– Zero/sum vs. sum/sum politics
• "Splintering”
– Break up of states--centrifugal forces
• Goal: Interest Group Liberalism
• Civil Society as organizational
– Not the individual or the mass
Governance and Sovereignty
• The need for apathy?
• Constitutional vs. Social stability
• Institutional structures:
– Checks and balances
– The Institutional State
• What is the "Institutional State?” Why is
it important?
Civil Society And Democracy
• Definition:
–Networks of organizations, groups and
individuals pursuing socio-economic
interests
"Beyond the family but short of the state”
- Hegal
"Human Rights, Basic Needs and the
Stuff of Citizenship”- First vs. Second vs.
Third generation
Human Rights- The Debate
First Level- Individual- speech, religion,
association
Second Level- health, education, welfare
Third Level- employment, economic
security
Civil Society Organizations
1. NGOs, CBOs, PVOs (Clark- Democratizing
Development)
2. Grassroots, interests, not for profits
(neutrality)
3. Nationalist Groups- role of ethnicity,
religion and class
4. Privatization- Why not “for profits?”
5. Corporatism vs. clientelism- The Organic
nature of society (Vincent Ostrom)Corporatism vs. establishing the rule of law
Break
• Ten Minutes
Decentralization
• The Local Governance Debate
Decentralized Governance
• Subsidiarity- higher units of
Government should not do what can be
done by lower units
What Local Government Does
Services- Depend Upon:
– Fiscal/budget allocation
• Taxes and transfers
– Planning
• Strategic priorities
– Managing
• Implementing
The Development Debate
States will necessarily remain central
actors in development policy and
development management."
- Milton Esman
Local Government and the
Local State
• Local State vs. Local Government
• Functional vs. Territorial Control
• Devolution
– Urban vs. Rural
– Urban linked with Rural
State Societal Linkages
Central State - Macro
Weak
Strong
SOFT STATE…………………………….PREDATORY STATE
State-mezzo Weak
Strong
Mono-State…...INTERGOVERNMENTAL Systems in place.…..Local State
Civil Society - Micro
Weak
Strong
Local - SOFT STATE….………………LOCAL GOVERNMENT
The Primary Unit of
Government
• Municipality: Lowest level with
Bureaucrats
• English/American
– Town vs. county (Rural vs. Urban)
• Continental European
– Commune (no distinction between rural
and urban)
Decentralization and Local
Government: Models
• Devolution
• Deconcentration
• Delegation
• Privatization
Deconcentration
• Functional vs. Prefectoral
• Prefectoral integrated
• Prefectoral unintegrated
Control Systems
Functional
Home Affairs
Local Govt. Public Works Agriculture Education
Council
Public Works
Office
District Ag.
Office
District Ed.
Office
Labor
District
Labor
Office
Control Systems
Prefectoral - Integrated
Interior
Local Govt.
Public Works
Agriculture
Education
Labor
District
Office
Council/Chief
Public Works
Office
District Ag.
Office
District Ed.
Office
District
Labor
Office
Control Systems
Prefectoral - Unintegrated
Interior
Local Govt.
Public Works
Agriculture
Education
Labor
Public Works
Office
District Ag.
Office
District Ed.
Office
District
Labor
Office
Police
District
Office
Police
Council/
Chief
Discussion
Discussion One: What is unique about
each part of the world as seen from our
authors?
Discussion Two: Limited GovernmentWhat is it?
Discussion Three: Command
Economy?
Discussion
• Isabel Allende, “Clarisa,”
• Case Study: The Peddler
• Dr. Veraswami (Burmese Days):
• "Why is it you are always abusing the pukka sahibs
as you call them. They are the salt of the earth.
Consider the great administrators who have made
British India what it is.”
• Case Study: Burma
Discussion
• Why do States Fail?
• “Balkan Ghosts,” vs. Iraq, Somalia,
Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Sudan
• Compare with Other Area Readings