Decentralisation as the Institutional Basis for Community-Based Participatory Development: The Latin American Experience

Abstract

Decentralisation of government decision-making and administration has been a salient development in many countries over the past two decades. This paper examines the conflicting dynamics of this process, with particular reference to the emergence of a "new paradigm" that privileges community-based and participatory forms of development. In the Latin American context, decentralisation is essentially a project designed as a means of social control, opening up channels for popular participation at the local level while securing the demise of organisations that might challenge the power structure of national institutions and policies for more effective change.Cet article examine les dynamiques paradoxales de la ddcentralisation, en mettant l'accent sur l'dmergence d'un "nouveau paradigme" pn'vilkgiant un dkreloppement communautaire et participatij Duns le contexte de I'Amdrique latine, la dkcentralisation est utilide comme un moyen de contr&le, invitant la participation communautaire, alors qu'elle anhntit certains organismes qui pourraient luffer contre le pouvoir des institutions nationales pour demander des rtfformes plus efficaces.

The Politics of Administrative Decentralization in Bangladesh

“…The weak civil society of these countries means that the masses are unable to check the dominating features of state. Veltmeyer (1997), in the Latin American context, shows that in the decentralization process, community and local government are brought together under conditions that work in favour of the government while undermining and weakening the economic and social structures at the grassroots level. The local arena is often viewed as devoid of contradictions; however, this very space is subject to continuous conflicts and cannot be seen in isolation from broader political and economic spheres (Mohan and Stokke 2000).…”

Social Exclusion and Models of Development in Latin America

“…Behind this development can be found the workings of a new economie model based on a neoliberal form of capitalist development promoted by the World Bank and other agencies of a New World Order (Bulmer-Thomas 1996;Veltmeyer andPetras 1997, 2000). Although the profound social impacts of this model have been well-documented and analyzed, questions re main as to the social conditions of the se impacts as weil as the diverse strategie-and political-responses that have been made to them.…”

Grassroots development in El Salvador

“…2 According to World Bank president James Wolfensohn , two billion people exist on less than $US 2 per day (CBC radio news broadcast, April 13, 2000). Rahman 1993;Veltmeyer 1997). The "underdeveloped" of the South have been "developed", "economically developed", "developmentally assisted", "developmentally planned" and "developmentally aided" with less than the expected effect on their poverty and levels of inequality.…”

“…Finally, resources were to be more equitably distributed in conjunction with a democratic political system. Authors noted by Veltmeyer (1997) In this first section, I have set the stage for a careful examination of the social aspects of GRD which will follow; so far I have briefly described two important paradigms of development, that of things in which development is directed from the top to the bottom and that of people in which development flows from the bottom up. Key characteristics of each approach were compared.…”

“…According to Veltmeyer (1997) , in the 1980s and 1990s the various alternative ways of looking at development merged into a movement with recognizable features and principles. These included development as empowerment; the need to go beyond the state, the market and the development agencies to the community -the focus and central instrument of development.…”