[PDF] Local Governments And Rural Development eBook

Author : Krister Andersson
Publisher : University of Arizona Press
Page : 264 pages
File Size : 49,84 MB
Release : 2009
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780816527014

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Despite the recent economic upswing in many Latin American countries, rural poverty rates in the region have actually increased during the past two decades. Experts blame excessively centralized public administrations for the lackluster performance of public policy initiatives. In response, decentralization reformshave become a common government strategy for improving public sector performance in rural areas. The effect of these reforms is a topic of considerable debate among government officials, policy scholars, and citizensÕ groups. This book offers a systematic analysis of how local governments and farmer groups in Latin America are actually faring today. Based on interviews with more than 1,200 mayors, local officials, and farmers in 390 municipal territories in four Latin American nations, the authors analyze the ways in which different forms of decentralization affect the governance arrangements for rural development Òon the ground.Ó Their comparative analysis suggests that rural development outcomes are systemically linked to locally negotiated institutional arrangementsÑformal and informalÑbetween government officials, NGOs, and farmer groups that operate in the local sphere. They find that local-government actors contribute to public services that better assist the rural poor when local actors cooperate to develop their own institutional arrangements for participatory planning, horizontal learning, and the joint production of services. This study brings substantive data and empirical analysis to a discussion that has, until now, more often depended on qualitative research in isolated cases. With more than 60 percent of Latin AmericaÕs rural population living in poverty, the results are both timely and crucial.

Author : Gábor Péteri
Publisher : Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative
Page : 188 pages
File Size : 32,38 MB
Release : 2008
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN :

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Usually functioning in parallel to the proportional electoral system, community-level governments are rooted in mostly rural areas where traditional agricultural production is the norm. The legitimacy of community-level governments is based on trust and a higher sense of community responsibility and this study finds that they could well serve as advocates of community issues, messengers in elected local councils, providers of some community public services on behalf of local government, and managers of public administration matters. Mind Your Own Business! recognizes the potential of community-level governments for new forms of representation and alternative accountability mechanisms away from the center of government. This study compares the historical precedents in South Eastern Europe and Poland for community-level governance before moving to contrast the current practice and the future of this valuable resource for bringing services and rights to rural communities. Any further decentralization reforms in the public sector must consider how to develop power in such a decisive way that local communities are empowered by opportunities for sustainable development. Book jacket.

Author : Akampurira Abraham
Publisher : Anchor Academic Publishing (aap_verlag)
Page : 34 pages
File Size : 35,10 MB
Release : 2014-02-01
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 3954896338

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Communities need a holistic approach to address the problems that affect the people at the grass root. The planning of the direct beneficiaries involves decentralization in order to allow the lower power centers to widely take part in the development of society. Concerns of the grass root people form the need for decentralization and local governance. People’s involvement in the planning on the village level and all local government units, makes the identification and solving of the problem easier. High participatory levels of all the people especially the marginalized, encourages innovation to source for the appropriate solutions to the common problems that face society. It therefore calls a decentralized system that caters for the voters’ preferences while providing for their services. The people’s concerns call for local planning and the transfer of power to the public so that services are brought nearer to the people. This study will cover the aspects of local government and decentralization such as good governance, democratization, civil society, deconcentration, devolution and delegation, and its relation to the development of societies.