Local organisations. intermediaries in rural development. Milton J. Esman and Norman T. Uphoff Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, 1984, 391 pp.
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230060208 |
| Published date | 01 April 1986 |
| Date | 01 April 1986 |
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT, Vol.
6,203-209
(1986)
Book
Reviews
LOCAL ORGANISATIONS. INTERMEDIARIES IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT
Milton
J.
Esman and Norman
T.
Uphoff
Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York,
1984,
391
pp.
This excellent and timely book is one of the latest products of the Rural Development
Participation Project at Cornell University. It is based on
a
systematic analysis
of
150
case
studies of local organizations ‘which act on behalf of and are accountable to their
membership and which are involved in developmental activity’ (p.
18).
As such they can be
distinguished from bureaucratic structures and market interactions, though they act as
intermediaries between local people and both sectors.
Essentially the book is
a
work of classification and correlation. The contributions which
local organizations (LOs) make to development are classified as efficiency, equity and
empowerment, in decreasing order of acceptability to the powers that be. LOs are classified
organizationally as local development associations, cooperatives and interest associations.
The factors related to the level of contribution to rural development by LOs are classified as
organizational functions, environment, structure and participation. The tasks of
LOs
are
classified as intra-organizational (planning, conflict management), resource-related
(mobilization and management), service-related (provision and integration), and extra-
organizational (control of bureaucracy and claim-making on government). The obstacles
which confront them are categorized as resistance, subordination, internal division,
ineffectiveness, and malpractices. Innovations and practices to improve performance in the
face of such obstacles are proposed, based on the experiences of successful
LOs.
Strategies
which could be adopted by local leaders, national governments, and external agencies for
strengthening LOs are discussed and evaluated.
For the purpose of explanation, performance indicators were devised and categorized as
economic gains, social benefits, equity effects, reduced discrimination, and participation.
Environmental variables were found to have an extremely limited effect on the performance
of LOs. Structural factors were found to be more significant, notably the acquisition of
multiple functions, and participatory arrangements.
Such an exhaustive and rigorous analysis provides a mine of invaluable ideas, proposals,
and hypotheses which will be
of
immense use to teachers and researchers interested in this
hitherto somewhat neglected area. Because of the book’s scope and the variety
of
organizations surveyed and reported on it is difficult to think of specialists in different aspects
of rural development who will not find something on which to build further research. The
chapters covering the impact of environmental and organizational (structural) factors on
performance are particularly useful in this respect. These first look at the relationships
between independent variables and aggregate measures
of
performance. The variables
concerned range from levels
of
organizational formality to bureaucratic capacity; from
literacy levels to the rewards and sanctions associated with membership
of
LOs;
from the
social composition of
LO
membership to income distributions within the societies in which
they are located. They secondly disaggregate the dependent variable into the specific tasks
classified in an earlier chapter. Hence the very wide range of findings of interest to a diverse
readership. This book has a place on the shelves of all who are interested in the scope for
mobilization and participation at the local level in less developed societies.
BRIAN
C.
SMITH
University
of
Bath
0
1986
by
John Wiley
&
Sons,
Ltd.
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