Local democracy: European and African compliance with Millennium Development Goals

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Periodical article

Title:	Local democracy: European and African compliance with Millennium Development Goals
Authors:	Pallotti, Arrigo Poto, Margherita
Year:	2010
Periodical:	Journal of African and international law (ISSN 1821-620X)
Volume:	3
Issue:	1
Pages:	165-186
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Africa Tanzania
Subjects:	European Union governance decentralization democracy
Abstract:	The promotion of good governance and local democracy is today a central pillar of institutional reform processes in both developed and developing countries. In the case of Africa, both the donor community and African governments consider decentralization as a key component of any successful democratization and poverty reduction strategy on the continent. However, evidence to date shows that programmes aimed at fostering local democracy in African countries have been unable to guarantee a high level of popular participation in decisionmaking processes. A comparison of two completely different solutions to enforce participation - the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality as historically developed within the European Union, and the evolution of decentralization policies in Tanzania - indicates the difficulty of finding common paths for the developed and developing countries, and for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]