This article explores the political dynamics surrounding the Eastern Provincial Council during Sri Lanka’s post-war transition. We show that decentralisation constituted an intervention in conflict, rather than a solution to it. It creates new institutional arenas to re-negotiate centre-periphery relations, resulting in new forms of political mobilisation. There are crucial spatial dimensions to these contentions: it involves contested territorialisation of power, scalar manoeuvring, and boundary drawing. These are explored in Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province, with particular reference to the role performed by brokers in mediating centre-periphery relations, through and alongside the Provincial Council.

Karachi’s history has left a city riven by tribal, ethnic and sectarian divisions, which exhibits dimensions of fragility typical of ‘post-conflict’ cities. Pakistan has faced many challenges in establishing transparent government, and local government dissolution in 2009 led to a rapid increase in informal service provision, ghettoisation of low-income settlements, as sectarian violence left large parts of the city ungovernable. Through a case study of North Nazimabad, this paper explores the ensuing chasm and governance mechanisms that filled the gap, examining what happens when local government fails, and how groups and communities contest political, social and physical space.

Local governments have been explicitly recognised in the suite of international agreements, collectively known as the post-2015 Development Agenda. However, in post-conflict, in-conflict or fragile situations, the role of local governments and decentralisation processes more generally becomes even more complex than ‘normal’ development contexts. In the best-case scenario, decentralisation can be a tool to empower local communities, rebuild trust and transform conflicts. At the opposite end of the spectrum, it can be an instrument of domination or a new avenue for extending and firmly entrenching rent-seeking behaviour, eventually exacerbating conflict. This paper applies a practitioner’s lens to the papers included in this collection. It also draws on the author’s own experiences, most recently in Myanmar, which is emerging from international isolation, witnessing a huge and rapid economic and physical transformation, yet battling conflicts on several fronts. The role of local governments in this complex landscape is dynamic and rapidly evolving. The paper concludes by summarising the challenges faced by local governments in conflict, post-conflict and fragile contexts, and acknowledges the remarkable mobilisation and sustained advocacy by several local government associations and networks, many of which also came together under the umbrella of the Global Task Force of Local and Regional Governments.

This collection is designed to partially address a gap in the academic literature. Whilst decentralisation is frequently included in peace agreements, the actual scope and role of local government is far less frequently discussed. This gap remains despite a considerable literature on local government in developing countries more generally, particularly with regard to decentralisation; but also despite a considerable and growing literature on post-conflict reconstruction. Despite this, very little has been written specifically on the politics of local government and post-conflict. This collection aims to fill that gap, providing a mixture of case study and conceptual material and also perspectives from both academics and policy-makers.

The second edition of this popular and authoritative text provides a truly global assessment of democratization in theory and practice in the contemporary world. It has been systematically revised and updated throughout to cover recent developments, from the impact of 9/11 and EU enlargement to the war in Iraq.