1 LOCAL POLITICS AND DEMOCRATISATION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

The purpose of the project is to critically examine local politics and democratisation in developing countries. The contemporary world is characterised by both globalisation and localisation, i.e. simultaneous tendencies towards international integration and local embeddedness. Within development theory and practice, this tendency towards globalisation has led to various attempts at compensating for the negative effects by turning ‘the local ’ into a prime site of economic, social, and political development (Mohan & Stokke, 2000; Nederveen Pieterse, 2001). Common institutional reforms aimed at this goal include decentralisation and local governance, elections, and participatory development initiatives. The general assumption is that mutually empowering relations between decentralised state institutions, private businesses and civil societies promotes liberal democracy and socio-economic development. There are few critical analyses, however, of whether the processes involved actually generate substantial democracy. Most existing studies focus on either the institutional reforms or on the actors in civil society. There is a lack of comparative research which comprehensively studies what kinds of democracy and development really emerge when various actors are confronted with and adapt to these institutional reforms