Democratic decentralisation and civil society

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to address two questions: One, in what way have decentralised governments promoted civil society in our country ? Second, under the aegis of decentralisation, to what extent has the civil society promoted an integrative and cohesive social system for augmenting the welfare of the people? It is intended here to answer these questions in the field context by drawing from the studies carried out by the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore. These studies were not specifically focused on civil society as such. However, the information collected have been fruitfully used here for developing a view as to how far the local governments have supported civil society and how far the latter have promoted an integrative and cohesive social system for advancing the well-being of the people.