Participatory local governance in rural Nepal: The primacy of informality

Abstract

MotivationNepal adopted a federal constitution in 2015 that created autonomous local governments across the country. A prime aim was to encourage ordinary people's participation in local decision‐making processes.PurposeTo what extent do local governments in rural Nepal adopt informal approaches—approaches that reflect local social needs and desires—to participation in decision‐making?Methods and approachAs part of interpretive case studies, the author gathered qualitative evidence as a participant observer of local government in five rural municipalities in Rasuwa District, a remote area on the northern border.A framework was created to capture the concepts of participatory governance and sociology to guide data collection and analysis.FindingsIn the five municipalities studied, decisions were successively made in forums at village, ward and municipal levels. In the village, participation was considerable: all persons, all voices could be heard. But as proposals were aggregated upwards to ward and municipal levels, citizens participated less, being replaced by elected representatives and civil servants.Nepal has showcased successful participatory processes by incorporating diverse local groups in a range of policy areas such as community forests, or in the operation of public services such as water or schools. The present research acknowledges their success in widening and deepening citizen participation; it also brings new knowledge to bear on deeply rooted culturally accepted informal participatory methods in rural local governments.Policy implicationsBecause each local government has its own circumstances in which to operationalize participatory governance, reforms should recognize the prevalence of informalities in rural municipalities and the dominance of formalities in urban municipalities.

Five years of local democracy in federal Nepal (2017–2022)

“…The third generation of local governments evolved along with Nepalʼs democratic renewal in 1990. This newest generation of local government features several aspects of representative local democracy, with elements of diverse participatory mechanisms for ordinary people to participate in local government mechanisms, have their say in decisions, and thus hold control of local democracy (Bhusal, 2023c).…”

“…This research assumes that such dependency has significantly compromised local govern-mentsʼ potential to enhance the quality of local democracy in Nepal (Acharya & Zafarullah, 2022;Bhusal, 2023c). Building upon this assumption, this research assesses the first 5year tenure of Nepalʼs local governments (2017)(2018)(2019)(2020)(2021)(2022) to understand the quality of local democracy.…”

Local governmentsʼ accountability and public trust in Nepal: Does participation make a difference?

“…Despite political leaders consistently claiming participatory governance, the Nepalese really only started participating in government activities after the enactment of the Local Self‐Governance Act in 1999 (Acharya & Scott, 2022; Bhusal, 2023). In particular, the newly promulgated Nepalese Constitution adopting federalism in 2015 allows for three levels of government—federal, provincial, and local, and has granted unprecedented powers, roles, and resources to the sub‐national governments (Bhusal & Breen, 2023).…”