University of Pittsburgh



LOCAL GOVERNMENT, GOVERNANCE AND CIVIL SOCIETY IN

ASIA, LATIN AMERICA, EASTERN EUROPE AND AFRICA

I. Governance, Local Government and Civil Society: Themes

a. What are some of major historical factors have defined Governance, Local Government and Civil Society according to our "general reading."

b. What historical factors are unique and different for Africa, Asia Eastern Europe and Latin America?

c. To what extent is history important at the "Country" level? Be able to discuss at least one country in your region.

2. Provisional Definitions- Revised

a. Governance

b. Local Governance

c. Civil Society

3. The "Institutional State?" Why is it important?

4. Case Studies:

Africa: Dark Continent, Colonial Dependence or Special Case?

Latin America: Iberian Heritage and Yankee influence

Eastern Europe and Near East- Empathy vs. Ideology: The Clash of Civilization

Asia: The Legacy of Vietnam, the Asian model and democracy

II. The Nature of Local Government

1. What Local Government Does- Services

1.

a. The Nature of the Municipality- The Primary Unit of Government

i. Anglo-American- Town separate from country (County)

ii. Continental- Integration of Town and County

b. Services Depend Upon:

i. fiscal/budget allocation- taxes and transfers

ii. Planning- strategic priorities

iii. Managing- implementing

c. Local state vs. Local Government

d. Functional vs. Territorical Control

e. Devolution- Urban vs. Rural

2. Subsidiarity- higher units should not do what can be done by lower units

3. Implementation and Administration- Has local Government Failed?

1. Skills Shortages

2. The Need for Institutional Training

3. International Donors and the Training Agenda

4. Failure to make a Needs Assessment

5. Bridging Training vs. the Synthetic Mode of Thought

6. Local Government- Urban vs. Rural Needs

4. How Developmental Is Local Government: Assess Local Government Comparatively in light of Case Histories and the Assigned Readings.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT, GOVERNANCE AND CIVIL SOCIETY IN

ASIA, LATIN AMERICA, EASTERN EUROPE AND AFRICA

Governance, Land and Civil Society

1. Planning and Land Use Patterns: Issues- Ownership and distribution. Land- its use and access to water. At the core of grass roots development in the rural areas

a. Hunter-gatherers- Age-grade societies

b. Paternalism- Monarchy, Theocracy and Authoritarianism

c. Landlordism: Tenancy relationship to large hacienda, plantation or commercial agricultural enterprise

=In much of the world, Land is traditional controlled by land-lords with the vast majority of rural peasants in some form of tenancy relationships

d. Serfdom: legal linkage to land and ownership

e. Small scale subsistence agriculturalist- produce for food Reality: Peasants- dependency relationship to land

f. Traditional- Communal: The term is misleading- there are an infinite number of land relationships

1. Use same land for individual benefit (cattle rearing)

2. People use same land and pool proceeds- aspiration in socialist countries- little evidence in traditional society

=COLLECTIVE FARMS AND FARM FACTORIES

3. Individual use of land for individual gain without legal tenure

-external authority

-no sale or disposal of land

-no collateral

c. Landless Rural Workers- Sell their labor in cities, to plantations, to small farmers or as a labor export (regionally or internationally)

h. The realities and limits of collective finance: From Burial Societies to micro-credit schemes

2.Modernization- Western (and to some Colonial)- define individual relationship to land: Serfdom- FAILURE OF LAND TENURE REFORM

a. Usufruct: Individual ownership and control of land with rights of transfer, inheritance and sale

b. Landed elites- landed aristocracy

c. MNCs as plantation farmers- Firestone, Dole and Unilever

3. Rural Development and civil society Assumed Rural Transformation- Approaches

a. Radical Transformation- urbanization

1. Primacy of Industrialization

2. Emphasis on infrastructure and mechanization of farming

b. Green Revolution: Variant of above. Capital intensive and export oriented. (Landlordism)

1. Focus is primarily on Technical (seeds, equipment- focus is on extension and technical)

2. Economies of scale mean large farms

c. Small holder approach- Primacy is on rural sector INTEGRATED RURAL DEVELOPMENT

1. Primacy of social development, health, education, community development

2. Small holder peasant sector

3. Stresses the importance of individual land tenure and producer cooperatives in marketing

4. Links with local government structures: Village Development Committees

d. Rural Socialism as an ideology in the 1960s

1. Peasant collectives and Communal state farms

2. Voluntary collectives- Ujamaa villages in Tanzania

3. Move the peasant away from individualized production

4. Ideal: village level economies of scale

5. Reality: Collectives, prefectoralism and state enterprises

4. Problem: The Capitalist/Commercial Farming Alternagive

Failure of and agricultural transformation except for parts of Southeast Asia (plus war and weather) lead to the decline of the state and the intervention of NGOs - Relief and Humanitarian activities

Discussion: land use, water, basic Needs: NGOs, grassroots institutions and civil society in Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Implications on Local Government, Civil Society and Governance

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download