State-Community Synergies in Community-Driven Development

In: The journal of development studies, Band 40, Heft 3, S. 27-58

Abstract

States can do much to tap community-level energies & resources for development if they seek to interact more synergistically with local communities. The broader spin-off is the creation of a developmental society & polity. Using case studies from Asia & Latin America, we illustrate how (1) state efforts to bring about land reform, tenancy reform, & expand noncrop sources of income can broaden the distribution of power in rural communities, laying the basis for more effective community-driven collective action; & (2) higher levels of government can form alliances with communities, putting pressure on local authorities from above & below to improve development outcomes at the local level. These alliances can also be very effective in catalyzing collective action at community level, & reducing "local capture" by vested interests. There are several encouraging points that emerge from these case studies. First, powerful institutional changes do not necessarily take long to generate. Second, they can be achieved in a diversity of settings: tightly knit or open communities; war-ravaged or relatively stable; democratic or authoritarian; with land reform or (if carefully managed) even without. Third, there are strong political payoffs in terms of legitimacy & popular support for those who support such developmental action. 1 Figure, 1 Appendix, 101 References. Adapted from the source document.