Governance on the Ground

This work shows people at a local level working through municipal institutions to take more responsibility for their own lives and environment. The study reports on what social scientists in eight local networks found when they chose their own subjects for a worldwide comparative study.

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This work shows people at a local level working through municipal institutions to take more responsibility for their own lives and environment. The study reports on what social scientists in eight local networks found when they chose their own subjects for a worldwide comparative study of institutional reform at the local level. "Governance on the Ground" is the culminating product of the Global Urban Research Initiative, a major 1990s' research effort that created a worldwide network of some 400 social scientists. The topics these scholars cover include fiscal innovation, infrastructure projects, social development, housing, harbour development and political party participation. Material comes from Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, Sudan, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Bangladesh, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. All chapters present governance at a local level in a period characterized by decentralization and democratization, when many governments were improving local accountability and transparency and people were actively participating in public forums, especially through institutions of civil society.
Many chapters show the close connection between social science and actual policy formation and implementation in the developing world.