Development Policy and
Management
PIA 2501
Week Seven
Local Administration and
Development: Democracy,
Decentralization and the Myth of
the Grassroots
Discussion for Next Week: Is Good
Governance a Global Issue?
• John Seitz, Global Issues
• Joyce Cary, “The Two Faces of
Progress”
• Isabel Allende, “Clarisa”
• Jorge Luis Borges, “The Book of Sand”
Our Authors
• Joyce Cary, 18881957, Author
• John (Jack) Seitz,
Wofford College
Jorge Luis Borge and Isabel Allende,
Voices of Latin America
Reminder: Five Development
Themes
1. Development Theory
2. Development Planning and
Management
3. Governance, Local Government and
Civil Society
4. Human Resource Development
5. Donors and Development
Theme Three
Governance,
Local Government and Civil
Society
Three Issues
• I. Governance
• II. Local Government
• III. Civil Society
I. GOVERNANCE
Democracy
Video
Governance
Governance and the
State
Sovereignty
– Authority to Govern (Ostrom)
Presumption of “Independence”
– A National Government status given by
International Community and by use of
International Law
"States will necessarily remain central actors in
development policy and development management."
Milton Esman
International Criminal Court
The Shift in Development
Priorities
Three Post-September 11 Issues:
1. Governance
2. NGOs and Civil Society
3. Human Resource Development
Where is Governance?
Governance: an Overview of
Issues
• Focus of International Development:
Post-2001:
“Democracy and Governance”
Human Rights (First GenerationPolitical)
But not second (social) or third
(economic)
Terms
Basic Terms:
1. The Environment of Development
2. Governance-Manner in which the
state is created, modified or
overthrown
3. Rule of Law
Governance and Sovereignty
"[T]ransformation (and globalization) has
led to a reinvention of government and
what it does“
- Anonymous
Sovereignty: What Does it Mean?
Governance and Sovereignty
• Rules of the Game politics:
– Zero/sum vs. sum/sum politics
• "Splintering”
– Break up of states--centrifugal forces
• Interest Group Liberalism: The goal?
• Civil Society as organizational
– Not the individual or the mass
The Nature of Conflict
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?
Governance and Democracy
Three Views
Types of Democracy: Terms
• Direct Democracy
– Actual direct participation of a population
in decision-making about laws and
regulations
• Town hall or village model
New England Town Hall
Types of Democracy,
Continued
• Indirect Democracy
– Some form of representative democracy
• Pluralism
– Existence of various diverse interest
associations, individuals and groups
within society (Focus on Tolerance)
Nepal Poster
Direct Democracy vs.
Representative Democracy
• Problem with Populism
– Mob Justice
• Minority rights
• Shifting majorities
• Problem with Plebiscites
• Size and the Need for Indirect Representation
James Madison and Democracy:
The Warning
• The problem with majorities
• Tyranny
• Factions
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
Vincent Ostrom, Tej Kumari
Mahat and Elinor Ostrom
Types of Democracy, cont.
• Polyarchy
– Diverse interest associations of society
compete with each other over policy
issues (Structured Pluralism)
• Cooperative Movements (or
Corporatism)
– Diverse interest associations cooperate
with each other and with organs of the
state to make policy (Scandinavia)
Robert Dahl (Yale University Born
1915) and Polyarchy
Democracy: What is it?
“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
Peter L. Berger
(Born March 17, 1929, Boston University)
Central to
Peter Berger's
work is the
relationship
between
society and
the individual
Review: Governance and the
Rule of Law
• Albie Sachs
• VIDEO
• Ten Minute Break
II. Local Government- Focus
on
Local Administration and
Development
Myths of the Grass Roots
Governance IssuesContinued
Local Government Defined:
• Primary unit of government that has both
political leadership and bureaucratic structures
What Local Government Does
CLGF Pacific Local Government
Capacity Building Project
What Local Government
Does?
• Services: local roads, sanitation, water, basic
health, primary education
• Depend Upon: Skilled Personnel
– Fiscal/budget allocation
• Taxes and transfers
– Planning
• Strategic priorities
– Managing
• Implementing
Local Government and
Development: The Goal
Bottom Up
Participation
Planning vs.
politics:
myths of
participation
Decentralized Governance
• Subsidiarity- higher units of
Government should not do what can be
done by lower units
• Not always about democracy
Reinventing Government?
Decentralization and Local
Government: Models
• Devolution- Political
• Deconcentration- administrative
• Delegation- autonomous control
• Privatization- private or non-profit sector
Local Government and the
Local State
• Local State (Local level national
authority) vs. Local Government
• Functional vs. Territorial Control
• Devolution
– Urban vs. Rural
– Urban linked with Rural
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)
Swedish Local Government
Organizations
Deconcentration
• Functional vs. Prefectoral
• Prefectoral integrated
• Prefectoral unintegrated
French Prefect
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
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
III. Civil Society and
Governance
Civil Society: Definition
Associations and organizations that are
beyond the clan and the family and short of the
state (does not include state organs)
Decentralization
Governance /
Democracy
NGOs
Women’s
Focused
Groups
Rural
Industries
Grassroots
Organizations
Target Group
Land
Communication and
Support
Civic
Education
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 Principle
The Goal
Learning Process Model--“incrementalism“theoretical alternatie
• Bottom up and interactive
• Village development committees vs. local planning
officers
• Paternalism of the district officer vs. patronage of
local level minor networks
• Street level bureaucrats vs. agents from center
Potential Development
Themes
• Potential areas of development include infrastructure
improvement, agricultural productivity, pasture
improvement, value adding (product processing),
postharvest technology and irrigation system
improvement.
• At the Grassroots
Civil Society
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 and Third generation
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich
Hegel
Governance Themes
Cultural Issues: Clash of Civilizations and
Chaos Theories
• Samuel Huntington
• Monte Palmer
• Jorge Luis Borges
•
• V.S. Naipaul
• Michela Wrong
Planning Themes-Authors
I. Planning vs. Implementation- The
Limits of Governance
• Jeffery Pressman (and Wildavsky)Local Government
• Naomi Caiden (and Wildavsky)Planning vs. Budgeting
Development Themes
II. Gender and Development- A
Democracy and Governance issue
• Isabel Allende
• Sue Ellen Charlton
• Kathleen Staudt
And Satire is Important
• Capital Steps- They put the Mock in
Democracy
Books of the Week
• Michele Wrong,
(Born in 1961) In the • V.S. Naipaul, Among
Footsteps of Mr.
the Believers, Born,
Kurtz
1932)