Abstracts section
| Date | 01 February 1993 |
| Published date | 01 February 1993 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230130117 |
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT,
VOL.
13,89-93
(1993)
Abstracts
Section
In each issue we shall reprint here a selection of abstracts
of
recent articles on key
themes of relevance to the study and practice
of
public administration and develop-
ment, drawn from a variety ofjournals.
For further details, or copies
of
these journals, readers must write to the relevant
journal-NOT to
Public Administration
and
Development.
The Journals’ addresses
are listed after the abstracts.
The abstracts within this section are normally chosen thematically. This issue
however contains a variety including,
inter
ah,
Local Government, Public and Pri-
vate Sector Enterprises, Public Participation and Information Technology.
IMPROVING LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN SRI LANKA
Thomas
L.
Bertone
Early in the previous decade, the Government of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri
Lanka adopted a new policy for local government. It was, and is, a policy to devolve power
and decentralize services. It is based upon a belief that many development problems cannot
be solved and many public services cannot be provided by the national government. Rather,
local governments need to be strengthened and motivated to assume responsibility for solving
local problems and providing local services if development, prosperity and higher standards
of living are to be attained. This belief took on greater urgency as the Tamil ethnic minority
pushed for an independent Tamil State in the northern and eastern parts of the island and
the government offered instead greater autonomy within its national structure.
Implementation of the policy was to be aided by a formal effort, the Performance Improve-
ment Programme, and a World Bank loan of approximately
$13
million was obtained to
provide funding support. This article describes the design of the Programme. The design
may perhaps serve as a guide to development efforts in other countries or
to
US state govern-
ments in providing financial aid to local governments.
(International Review
of
Administrative
Sciences
58,71-77 (1992).)
PANCHAYATI RAJ IN WEST BENGAL: POPULAR PARTICIPATION FOR THE
PEOPLE OR THE PARTY?
Neil
Webster
Since
1978
the Left Front government in West Bengal, led by the Communist party of India
(Marxist)--CPI(Mthas pursued a strategy of decentralized planning through local elected
panchayats (councils) in the countryside. The stated ideological commitment of the CPI(M)
is to support and eventually empower the poor and oppressed and this has resulted in Pan-
chayati Raj assuming the status of not just a state sponsored decentralization strategy, but
the institutional forum for the mobilization of the poor and the expansion of the party’s
base. However the CPI(M)’s strategy is to some extent ambiguous in that it combines a
need to maintain an
electoral status
as a party leading a state government within the Indian
Union and a
political status
as a party promoting the conditions for, and the transition to,
a people’s democracy and thereby socialism.
(Development and Change
23,
129-163 (1992).)
0
1993
by John Wiley
&
Sons, Ltd.
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