ABSTRACT
The key elements that normally accompany political change when it occurs organically were put aside, meaning that the messy but necessary disagreements over conflicting visions and ideals, and articulation of state-building into people's lived experience, were missed. The development industry's general approach to state-building is largely pro forma, imposing a vision of 'the state' which has very little to do with existing identities. The international development industry's approach to state-building, and the institutionalist assumptions that underpin the notion that a state can simply be 'built' through the introduction of liberal democratic institutions. Experiences in other countries suggest that such an institutional 'fix', massive though it has the potential to be, may not be sufficient to bridge the gap between elected bodies and the citizenry. Depending on the policy model that is ultimately implemented, political decentralisation is potentially a game-changing move, involving a significant re-ordering of state institutions and distribution of resources, devolving important decision-making powers to locally elected bodies.
