Decentralization

Political institutions are concentrating considerable efforts in order to bridge a perceived gap in between government and society and one tool for that is usually found within the boundaries of citizen participation on formulation, evaluation and implementation of public policies. Having this in mind, the present article aims to explore the city of São Paulo Participatory Council creation process, as a tool for the constitution of a participative and decentralized public administration. In December 2013, 1113 councillors were elected from the civil society to work within the 32 administrative divisions in São Paulo, thus consolidating an established premise in the city’s organic plan from 1989, after overcoming strong resistances exerted by local political elites. In this sense, willing to analyze this important public policy construction process, this article proposes a reflection on its consolidation, exploring the political motivations that underpinned the Council creation. Moreover, this article will also look into the ways by which this process was constructed that finally resulted at the elections. The proposal here is to problematize this process dynamics, being able to critically assess it, in consonance to the democratization theoretical frame

The process of globalization has led to discourses on development having different perspectives. One of the major
upcoming development discourses puts gender and governance on the forefront of these. In this context, the government of
India has amended their laws for fair representation of gender in the local government to ensure good governance.
Notwithstanding the fact that constitutional support and legislative measures are necessary for bringing about social change,
but this, however, cannot be achieved single-handedly. Constitutional efforts are needed to strengthen and consolidate them
for meaningful empowerment. The question is whether an intervention like the constitutional amendment is able to ensure the
local governance. Decentralization brings government closer to the people. The existence of local political arenas makes it
easier for ordinary citizens to participate and exert influence. When power is brought closer to the citizens, the political
process becomes more tangible and transparent and more people can become involved. Decentralization may also create a
more open political system in that it implies a division of powers in society. The Village panchayats which formed an integral
part of the national life, helped to preserve democratic traditions in social, cultural, economic and political life, survived the
onslaughts of centuries of political upheavals and saved Indian society from disintegration.

The Juntas Vecinales of El Alto portray a telling picture of the current process of societal change in Bolivia. Formed to attend the collective needs of indigenous migrants striving to settle down on the outskirts of the capital, the Juntas Vecinales have grown as an intrinsic part of El Alto becoming significant socio-political actors and part of the indigenous social movements propelling the process of change in Bolivia. Their traditional function of supervising public policy by ressuring service providers to attend their demands is commonly known as the practice of social control. A function that was institutionalized in the nineties with neoliberal inspired citizenship reforms of decentralization. The dynamic relation between the informal and formal branches of social control is particularly evident in El Alto as the Federation of Juntas Vecinales and the legal supervising
institution called the Vigilance Committee hold each branch. This paper presents a case study on the formal and informal actions and activities that define the current role of the Juntas Vecinales in
relevance to their history and to the political and social context of Bolivia today. My main finding presents an unanimous rejection of the formal branch of social control and the predominance of traditional methods of pressure actions as the only means of attending rassroots demands.

Some colleagues asked me to compile the analysis I've done for Inside Indonesia over the last year. This document is comprised of seven articles on development and service issues in Papua: Living without a State; the Middle of Nowhere; Land of Ghosts; the Failure of Education; Dying for Nothing; Platitudes of Papua; and Famine and Fraud.

In Peru the ongoing decentralisation process involves two sub-national levels: regional and local governments. The latter have two tiers: provincial and district municipalities; consequently, information for both sub-national governments will be considered. This paper aims to measure the Aggregated Decentralisation Index (ADI) for Peru based on four categories: democracy, capacity, fiscal autonomy, and coordination. At the end there is a reflexion about the ADI results and its usefulness.

The time has come for Sindhi, especially Sindhi in Diaspora, to seriously opt for taking the formal case of Sindh in the United Nations on the basis of historical treaties signed between sovereign country of Sindh and the Britain before Britain's invasion of Sindh as well as crimes committed by the State of Pakistan and its ethno-communal mercenaries against Sindhi. This has become necessary especially after the recent blackmailing attempts by the sate-cronies.

บทความนี้มุ่งศึกษาประวัติศาสตร์และพัฒนาการของการกระจายอำนาจในอินโดนีเซีย โดยแบ่งยุคสมัยของการกระจายอำนาจออกเป็น 4 ยุค คือ ยุคก่อนได้รับเอกราช ยุคอดีตประธานาธิบดีซูการ์โน ยุคอดีตประธานาธิบดีซูฮาร์โต และยุคปฏิรูปประเทศหลังซูฮาร์โตพ้นจากตำแหน่ง ข้อค้นพบของบทความ คือ อินโดนีเซียได้เริ่มมีการกระจายอำนาจมาตั้งแต่ยังเป็นอาณานิคมของฮอลันดา แต่ทิศทางของการกระจายอำนาจไม่ได้เป็นเส้นตรงที่เริ่มจากการรวมศูนย์แล้วก็กระจายอำนาจออกจากศูนย์กลางมากขึ้นเรื่อยๆ แต่แท้จริงแล้วมีบางยุคสมัยที่อินโดนีเซียย้อนกลับไปปกครองแบบรวมศูนย์อำนาจอีก จนกระทั่งหลังการโค่นล้มซูฮาร์โตเมื่อ ค.ศ. 1998 อินโดนีเซียจึงได้เริ่มดำเนินการกระจายอำนาจอย่างจริงจังจนถึงปัจจุบัน ซึ่งมีปัจจัยหลายประการที่เกี่ยวข้องกับความเปลี่ยนแปลงของการกระจายอำนาจในแต่ละยุคสมัย

Two yardsticks exist by which we can measure Indonesia’s democratic transition. The first is the this year’s presidential election; the second applies to Indonesia’s macro-level democratic transitions in pursuance of a viable state-citizen compact. In Papua, both of these measurements produce troubling results.

The main problems in the essay concern the contemporary decentralization tendencies in Silesia which still is only a geographical region. All of those take place in a unitary state such as Poland. The autonomy movement is relatively new and it became really popular only after the entrance of that country in the European Union.
In Poland after the World War Two the population of different nations such as Gorals, Germans, Tatars, Jews, Ukrainians, Kashubs, Lithuanians - was systematically polonised so officially in the country there are about ninety three per cent Poles and other seven are just minorities. They don’t have rights for autonomy, nevertheless some of them live as a compact mass in certain territories. The confederal style of governing or federal one similar to that in Switzerland will be the possible solution for Poland in the future.

This article explains how colonial and indigenous influences have shaped local power structure in the Philippines by looking at features of colonial and governing systems that have developed over time. The following periodisation is referred to: Spanish Colonisation (1521–1896); the Revolutionary Government (1896–1902) including the Filipino-American War (1898–1902); American Colonisation (1902–1935); Philippine Commonwealth (1935–1945) including Japanese occupation during World War II (1941–1945); the Independent Republic (1946–1972); Dictatorship (1972–1981); and Redemocratisation (1986–1991). Throughout the history of the Philippines, power structure inequality has characterised the political process, preserving the interests of the elite. Patterns of inquality, traditionally based on ownership and accumulation of land, can be traced to Spanish colonial rule when control over farmlands was concentrated within the principalia. Moreover, elite domination of electoral office had historically been assured through limiting suffrage to the educated and landowners. With monetisation of the economy in urban centers, patronage systems have been eroded but elites now use other tools, including coercion, to secure their place. Even in contemporary times, patterns of elite domination persist through democratisation efforts, effecting the rule of what could be considered an “elite” democracy in the country to

IDI dikembangkan menurut konteks Indonesia, dan bukan menggunakan instrumen yang dikembangkan di luar negeri. Oleh karena itu, IDI pada dasarnya merupakan country-led assessment yang dibangun atas fondasi kepemilikan nasional. IDI adalah angka-angka yang menunjukkan tingkat perkembangan demokrasi di seluruh provinsi di Indonesia berdasarkan aspek tertentu dari demokrasi. Sebagai alat ukur, IDI menyediakan data yang penting bagi pemerintah dan stakeholder pembangunan.
Aspek penting demokrasi yang dijadikan alat ukur dalam IDI adalah: Kebebasan Sipil (Civil Liberties), Hak-Hak Politik (Political Rights), dan Lembaga Demokrasi (Institutions of Democracy).
IDI menyediakan data penting bagi pemerintah dan pemangku kepentingan lainnya terkait penilaian terhadap demokrasi di tingkat provinsi untuk memastikan keselarasan antara good governance dengan tujuan reformasi demokratis. Data tersebut dapat digunakan oleh pemerintah serta otoritas lokal --seperti kepolisian, lembaga peradilan, organisasi masyarakat dan lainnya; sebagai alat merumuskan kebijakan dan melakukan evidence-based analysis agar dapat menentukan bidang sasaran yang spesifik untuk diintervensi, maupun untuk berbagi pengalaman/praktek terbaik guna semakin mengukuhkan demokrasi di Indonesia.

Pakistan is a developing nation of third world yet struggling to
launch a local level system that ensures targeting of developmental
problems at grass roots and striving to make the communities
empowered in the sense that they plan and prioritize their problems
and decide the solutions at local levels. The purpose of the paper is to
study the new approach of Devolution of Power in its procedural
perspective. The paper also aims to highlight the procedural lope holes
in the concept of devolution of power in Pakistan due to which the real
essence of participation, local level planning, and empowerment did
not reach the targeted communities. The paper critically comments on
the gaps that were not addressed in the policy due to which the idea of
devolution came under severe attacks by the social scientists.

This paper is written with aim to point out the local level hurdles and socio-cultural factors responsible for mal-functioning of Devolution Plan. The authors have their professional impression on the basis of empirical data from local level community interactions that development of any nation or region is only possible when there is a distinct demarcation between development activities and interventions to be managed by top developmental intelligentsia or by just enhancing local level participation and sense of ownership. Historically, the province of Punjab witnessed a local level self-reliant approach to manage its livelihoods. The same if revitalized could help bring people realize that they have control over their resources (both social and natural) and they are capable enough to plan for the improvements in their livelihoods according to the ever-changing socio-environmental conditions. The local government concept is not new to the land rather it has a long history; devolution plan is merely a new approach into it. The barriers described in current papers debar realization of true and effective local level development, self reliance and social empowerment through meaningful decentralization.