Thursday 15 September 2011

Moving the State: The Politics of Democratic Decentralization in Kerala, South Africa, and Porto Alegre

by Patrick Heller, Politics & Society, Vol. 29 No. 1, March 2001 131-163

Over the past decade, a large number of developing countries have made the transition from authoritarian rule to democracy. The rebirth of civil societies, the achievement of new freedoms and liberties have all been celebrated with due enthusiasm. But now that the euphoria of these transitions has passed, we are beginning to pose the sobering question of what difference democracy makes to development, or to be more precise, whether democracy can help redress the severe social and economic inequalities that characterize developing countries.

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