Politicising democracy : the new local politics and democratisation / edited by John Harriss, Kristian Stokke and Olle Törnquist.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 226-245) and index.

Introduction : The new local politics of democratisation / John Harris, Kristian Stokke, and Olle Törnquist -- Decentralisation in Indonesia : less state, more democracy? / Henk Schulte Nordholt -- Bossism and democracy in the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia : towards an alternative framework for the study of 'local strongmen' / John T. Sidel -- Can public deliberation democratise state action? Municipal health councils and local democracy in Brazil / Günther Schönleitner -- Historical hurdles in the course of the people's planning campaign in Kerala, India / P.K. Michael Tharakan -- Social movements, socio-economic rights and substantial democratisation in South Africa / Kristian Stokke and Sophie Oldfield -- More than difficult, short of impossible : party building and local governance in the Philippines / Joel Rocamora -- Trade unions, institutional reform and democracy : Nigerian experiences with South African and Ugandan comparisons / Björn Beckman -- The political deficit of substantial democratisation / Olle Törnquist.

There is a major contradiction in contemporary politics: despite a wave of democratisation that has swept across much of the world, globalisation appears to have reduced those forces that have encouraged democracy historically. Democratic aspirations may well founder upon local political realities. But there is another side to all of this that is still little understood. As the social forces that have supplied the basis for democratisation in the past have become weaker, so other forms of organisation have grown up. A variety of new social movements and of voluntary associations, often operating locally and in neighbourhoods, seem to have become more powerful, and to provide the basis for more substantial democracy than we have know hitherto. The chapters in this book, by an international group of authors, analyse the kinds of development and of governance that are emerging in developing countries, as different actors are confronted with structural changes and institutional reforms that generate new and widened local political spaces. Are they really constructing more substantial democracy?