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Implications of agriculture's yielding its dominance as the major source of employment and production to commerce, services, and manufacturing.

Over the next decade, the demographic and economic characteristics of countries to which the United States government provides technical and financial assistance for economic development will change substantially. Rapid urban population growth, the expanding role of cities and towns in national economies, continued migration of population from rural to urban areas, explosive growth in the size of the labor force, and shifts in the occupations of the labor force from agriculture to manufacturing and ser‐ vices will require a reorientation of American development assistance. Yet, program objectives and budget allocations of the U.S. foreign aid program fail to reflect these changes in the characteristics of its clientele. The US. Agency for International Development lacks an overt strategy for coping with urbanization in developing nations. Without an urban strategy, the American foreign aid program is likely to incur increasing opportunity costs and fail to address critical problems arising from fundamental shifts in the economic and social structure of developing countries.

This article examines the role that local governance plays in creating an effective state and in building constructive state—society relations. Reconstruction efforts in fragile, post-conflict states have focused largely on central government, yet decentralized local authorities offer a number of positive features. Looking at the governance reconstruction experience in Iraq, the analysis explores the extent to which these positive features have characterized Iraqi sub-national government. The article draws lessons for governance reconstruction more generally, addressing decentralization choices, capacity-building, and political factors. Points for practitioners In fragile, post-conflict states, good governance reconstruction agendas often aim too high. Targeting good enough governance solutions is more realistic. Decentralized local governance can be integral to such solutions, and offers several advantages to counter problems that central governments face: weak roots beyond the center, poor distribution of services, and weak national integration. Experience shows that local governments can increase speed of service delivery, address ethnic/regional inequities, build democratic and conflict management capacities, mitigate political conflict, experiment to find creative solutions, and enhance legitimacy. We examine governance reconstruction in Iraq in terms of how efforts to build local governance have resulted in these positive outcomes. The Iraq case offers some support for our argument that in fragile, post-conflict states, decentralized local governance is an important feature of good enough governance.

Résumé Dans le présent article, nous examinons l'importance de la gouvernance locale dans la création d'un État efficace et l'établissement de relations constructives entre l'État et la société. Les efforts de reconstruction dans les États fragiles sortant d'un conflit se concentrent essentiellement sur le gouvernement central, alors que les autorités locales décentralisées présentent un certain nombre d'aspects positifs. Nous allons nous intéresser à l'initiative de reconstruction de la gouvernance en Irak pour étudier la mesure dans laquelle ces aspects positifs ont caractérisé le gouvernement infranational irakien. Nous tirerons des enseignements en matière de reconstruction de la gouvernance plus généralement, en examinant les choix dans le domaine de la décentralisation, le renforcement des capacités et les facteurs politiques. Remarques à l'intention des praticiens Dans les États fragiles sortant d'un conflit, les programmes de reconstruction axés sur la bonne gouvernance visent souvent trop haut. Il est plus réaliste de viser les solutions basées sur une gouvernance de type « good enough governance ». La décentralisation de la gouvernance locale peut faire partie de ces solutions et elle offre plusieurs avantages pour résoudre les problèmes rencontrés par les gouvernements centraux : peu de rapports avec les citoyens, mauvaise répartition des services et intégration nationale insuffisante. L'expérience montre que les gouvernements locaux peuvent accélérer la prestation de service, résoudre les inégalités ethniques/régionales, renforcer les capacités démocratiques et de gestion des conflits, atténuer les conflits politiques, faire des expériences pour trouver des solutions créatives et renforcer la légitimité. Nous examinerons la reconstruction de la gouvernance en Irak en étudiant la mesure dans laquelle les initiatives visant à renforcer la gouvernance locale ont débouché sur ces résultats positifs. Le cas de l'Irak confirme dans une certaine mesure notre idée selon laquelle dans les États fragiles sortant d'un conflit, la décentralisation de la gouvernance locale est un élément important de la good enough governance .

The literature on policy implementation suggests three major reasons for the failure of program personnel in public bureaucracies to implement policy as expected by upper-level administrators and legislators: (1) lack of understanding of policy ob jectives, (2) lack of resources or capability, and (3) disagreement with policy ob jectives. Most of the literature, however, also either implicitly or explicitly assumes that policies which are not implemented are the "correct" policies and conclude with observations on how to better control the behavior of policy implementa tion personnel. This article introduces evidence that lower-level personnel do in deed change or ignore policy directives, but do so deliberately and in a manner con sistent with larger system goals. Evidence from a state welfare organization suggests more attention to the reasons for deviation from official regulations and more dis cretionary authority for lower-level personnel.