ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author shows how action by government to support economic development and to buttress its own power also tends to be centralizing, but also how there are increasing demands for democratic participation and decentralization of control. It is the interplay between two criteria for good government put forward by John Stuart Mill, democratic participation and efficiency, that fascinating issues arise concerning the relative advantages and disadvantages of top-down versus bottom-up action and control for sustainable development. In reality the tension is more pervasive. It permeates lives and concerns for development, whether in higher or lower income countries. A common culture can circumvent the need for a lengthy process of searching for common meaning and definition of the nature of sustainable development. After ideology and ethnicity, impetus for decentralization also comes from the need to mobilize resources for self-development.
