Abstract
How realistic are democratic-governance strategies that emphasize local governance as a key component? Using Nigeria’s experience in local government and primary health care in the 1980s and 1990s as a case example, the article finds there were substantial shortfalls in local participation and program performance. These were caused by problems in the local political environment and local institutional design, in the national policy environment (particularly in the funding system), and by the stresses of structural adjustment, resource shortfalls, the natural physical environment, and weak leadership. These combined to create poor and inappropriate reward structures and lack of accountability. However, even though the Nigerian case was not successful, most of the specific problems that hurt it are remediable through policy changes at the national level. Several of these were under consideration at the time of the coups of 1992 and 1993.
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Additional information
James Wunsch is Professor of Political Science and International Studies at Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska. He has done extensive research in local governances and democratic reform in West and Southern Africa.
Dele Olowu is Professor of Public Administration at Obafemi Awolowu University in Ife, Nigeria. He is currently on leave with the Economic Commission for Africa of the UN in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. His specialty is local governance, which he has researched throughout Africa.
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Wunsch, J.S., Olowu, D. Regime transformation from below: Decentralization, local governance, and democratic reform in Nigeria. St Comp Int Dev 31, 66–82 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02738632
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02738632