Literature Review

Literature Review on Decentralization 

The restructuring or reorganization of authority so that there is a system of co-responsibility between institutions of governance at the central, regional and local levels according to the principle of subsidiarity is called decentralization. It has been increasing the overall quality and effectiveness of the system of governance, while increasing the authority and capacities of sub-national levels (UNDP, 1997). In Bangladesh, there are numbers of studies is conducted on decentralization as well as People’s participation.                                                                          

K.P Andersson, C.C Gibson argued about decentralization on their study named. “The politics of decentralized natural resource Governance”. They explain, in contemporary democratic society, and in governance, popular participation affects their lives is an indispensable part. Universally, as a sustainable solution for local community that improve service delivery, accommodate marginalized community in governing process and allow citizens to participate in formulating and implementing the decisions, development plans and policies, decentralized approaches have been adopted. The apparent benefits of decentralization are bigger access to decision makers, higher level of participation by various social groups in decision making and accountability of decision makers (K.P Andersson, 2004).

B Roche, articulates about Decentralization on the study of “New Directions in Community-based Research”. He argued, through decentralization process local people are empowered directly, including civil society in planning and implementing public programs and policies (Roche, 2010).

Pandy and Rabbani enumerate about people’s participation on their study named, “Good governance at the grass-roots: evidence from Union Parishads in Bangladesh”.  They illustrate, a requisite ingredient in development activities is the participation by the local population because it assimilates people’s experience, knowledge and commitments in the development process, while upholding democratic values  (H.M Rabbani, 2011).

E.S Zeemering contended on People’s participation in his study on “Governing inter local cooperation: city council interests and the implications for public management”. He claimed, popular participation in the affairs of the local government bodies are significantly increasing in an effective manner and people are trying to make their presence felt and their voices heard. He added that elected officials are involved and focus on efficiency in service delivery and less concerned with fostering means of public participation because people’s participation at the local level has remained controversial as of the existence of the patron–client relationship in the rural society (Zeemering, 2008).

Nasir Uddin enunciated about people empowerment on his studies named “Empowerment through participation in local governance: the case of Union Parishad in Bangladesh”. He clarifies, at grassroots level, local government in Bangladesh has started to exercise democratic and participatory governing processes for ensuring empowerment. In planning, implementing and monitoring process, there are some formal mechanisms of ensuring community participation. He added, civic participation in local decision making takes place as the elected representative are supposed to be accountable to the people for the money paid by the local citizens as taxes and citizen might complain about their local government and the services (Nasir, 2018).

While these studies concentrated on the overall aspect of decentralization and People’s participation, there are clearly lack of studies to provide any model to explain as what factors contribute to Strengthening decentralization through people's participation in Local Government. Moreover, in Bangladesh no studies have previously focused any forms of enhancing decentralization through people’s participation in local government. Hence, this study focuses on decentralization through enhancing people’s participation at local government.



 

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