Local democracy
This section contains information relating to all aspects of lcoal democracy and good governance at the local level. The Commonwealth principles on good practice for local democracy and good governance - known as the Aberdeen Agenda - which have been adopted by all CLGF members and are incorporated in the Commonwealth Charter, set the framework for the promotion of local democracy in the Commonwealth. The materials in this section relate to the constitutional and legal provisions for local government and include a range of studies, policy and training materials on local elections, leadership, community participation, representative local government, local government management and partnerships between local government and other key stakeholders such as traditional authorities.
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The Constitution of Zimbabwe 2013 as a basis for local government transformation
The implications of local government constitutional provisions have not been fully debated hence the gap that MSU and CLGF sought to close through debate leading to this edited volume. The debate recognised limited progress in implementing relevant provisions of the Constitution particularly the core ideals of devolution which remain contentious suggesting need for an implementation framework and plan. Such a framework would guide reforms of relevant administrative structures and relations. Currently these remain unchanged and thus constitute an implementation drag. The ‘dragging’ is seen in re-centralisation of local authority functions and spaces suggesting that the devolution agenda is not yet fully institutionalised. Changes in local government now require a constitutional rather than legislative changes and policy directives. The right to govern, the right to services and space for citizen participation are provided for in ways that usher a new dispensation for both national and local governance. Local government constitutionalisation is accompanied by a guaranteed sharing of national resources (at least 5%) between the national and sub-national tiers of government. Contributions in this volume provide an in-depth understanding on the constitutional provisions on local government and search for trajectories critical for entrenching the mechanisms needed to implement and optimise those provisions. Much of the discussion on local government constitutionalisation has hitherto been limited to realignment of laws. It did not engage with deeper governance transformations anticipated in the constitution. As such, this paper teases out key questions and reflects on possible avenues for making the constitution live. The paper generates preliminary yet foundational knowledge to guide further debate and practical processes needed for local-national constitutionalism post 2013. Important governance issues need not continue to be usurped by party political actors and interests.
Author: Kudzai Chatiza, Kadmiel Wekwet, July Moyo, Angeline Sithole, Stephen Chakaipa, Vincent Chakunda, Edson Mutema, Naome Rajah, Kudzai Matsika, Virginia Makanza and Patrick Banga Publisher: CLGF Publication year: 2016
The local government system in Antigua and Barbuda
This profile of the local government system in Antigua and Barbuda is structured to enable easy comparison across the countries of the Commonwealth. The profile includes an overview of the government system, the legal basis for and structure of local government, elections and women’s representation, intergovernmental relations, systems for community involvement, organised local government, intergovernmental relations, monitoring systems, finance, staffing and resources, and distribution of service delivery responsibility.
Author: CLGF Publisher: Publications UK Publication year: 2015
Local government system in Bangladesh
This profile of the local government system in Bangladesh is structured to enable easy comparison across the countries of the Commonwealth. The profile includes an overview of the government system, the legal basis for and structure of local government, elections and women’s representation, intergovernmental relations, systems for community involvement, organised local government, intergovernmental relations, monitoring systems, finance, staffing and resources, and distribution of service delivery responsibility.
Author: CLGF Publisher: Publications UK Publication year: 2015
Local government system in Barbados
This profile of the local government system in Barbados is structured to enable easy comparison across the countries of the Commonwealth. The profile includes an overview of the government system, the legal basis for and structure of local government, elections and women’s representation, intergovernmental relations, systems for community involvement, organised local government, intergovernmental relations, monitoring systems, finance, staffing and resources, and distribution of service delivery responsibility.
Author: CLGF Publisher: Publications UK Publication year: 2015
Transformation from below in Bolivia and Bangladesh: decentralization, local governance, and systemic change
I examine decentralization through the lens of the local dynamics it unleashed in the much-noted case of Bolivia and the less-noted case of Bangladesh. I argue that the national effects of decentralization are largely the sum of its local-level effects. Hence to understand decentralization we must first understand how local government works. This implies analysing not only decentralization, but also democracy, from the bottom up. Beginning with Bolivia, I explore the deep economic and institutional determinants of government quality in two extremes of municipal performance. From this I derive a model of local government responsiveness as the product of political openness and substantive competition. The quality of politics, in turn, emerges endogenously as a joint product of the lobbying and political engagement of local firms/interests, and the organizational density and ability of civil society. The model explains the micro-foundations of good vs. bad local government performance, and hence of Bolivia’s overall decentralization success. I then test these ideas using qualitative data from Bangladesh. The evidence shows that civic organizations worked with NGOs and local governments to effect transformative change from the grass-roots upwards – not just to public budgets and outputs, but to the underlying behaviours and ideas that underpin social development. In the aggregate, these effects were powerful. Key development indicators show Bangladesh leap-frogging past much wealthier India between 1990 and 2015. The combination of tests shows that the model generalizes to very different institutional, cultural, and economic contexts.
Author: Jean-Paul Faguet Publisher: LSE Publication year: 2015
