Local Democracy

The IDEA outlines a number of reasons for decentralizing democracy:

• Decentralized governance is critical for initiating and sustaining participatory decision making and accountable management systems that permit communities to meet their own goals for development at the local level within the framework of nationally articulated economic and social programmes.

• It helps to deepen the commitment of countries to democratic governance and increase the legitimacy of national governments, including those just emerging from conflict. In addition, the role of regional and local governments have become important as the basic training ground for the citizenry in democratic problem solving as well as developing local politicians for the national arena.