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Key Text Local Governance

Author: J Manor
Date: 2003
Size: 14 pages (67.5 KB)

Summary

When it works well, democratic decentralisation has many virtues. It almost always stimulates greater popular participation and civil society activity; it also increases transparency and uptake of government services and enhances accountability. Most crucially, strong decentralised systems can make government more responsive. However, it seldom works well, with successful examples being limited to Bolivia, the Philippines, a number of Indian states and a handful of other cases. Nonetheless, this report concludes that in most cases democratic decentralisation does bring improvement to LDCs to some extent.

Democratic decentralisation has a mixed record as a force for reducing poverty. It may help reduce poverty that arises from inequalities between regions but often does less to reduce poverty that arises from inequalities within regions. However, recent evidence suggests that its impact may be more positive than previously thought.

As female-headed households are often afflicted by poverty and women are the main gatekeepers between the household and vital services, democratic decentralisation can have a significant impact on women. There is clear evidence that the presence of significant numbers of women on local bodies sometimes increases the uptake of crucial services such as ante and postnatal care. Moreover, when civil society organisations which are committed to assisting the poor and women support women members of local councils, positive results follow.

Five trends observed in practice are discussed here, the first three are damaging to democratic decentralisation and the latter two encouraging:

Many governments are unwilling to devolve adequate powers and resources to local bodies, thus stifling constructive developmental outcomes and limiting the potential of elected local bodies.
Governments may take back powers and resources from local bodies, often in response to pressure from bureaucrats and legislators discontented with the loss of former powers.
The proliferation of often donor driven and usually single sector ‘user committees’ alongside local councils has often damaged decentralisation.
Some governments have encouraged devices to increase bottom-up participation and the empowerment of ordinary people.
Civil society organisations can play constructive roles in relation to democratic local governance.

International development agencies should remain vigilant about the impact of democratic decentralisation on poverty reduction. However, development agencies can and should support democratic decentralisation in countries where governments are at least somewhat inclined to pursue it seriously. Donors could assist democratic decentralisation by:

Encouraging governments to be more generous in devolving power and resources to local bodies and discourage them from reclaiming these.
Acknowledging that elected local bodies are often victims of powerful actors at higher levels who refuse to fund or empower them adequately.
Recognising that administrative or fiscal decentralisation alone tend to promote centralisation. If decentralisation is to be beneficial it must have significant democratic content.
Supporting civil society organisations that seek to strengthen elected local bodies by working with their members and/or by working with ordinary citizens.

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Source: Manor, J., 2003, 'Local Governance', paper prepared for Sida.
Author: James Manor , james.manor@sas.ac.uk
Institute of Development Studies , http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids