ABSTRACT
In the current epoch of crafting democratic governance in the newly democratizing polities (NDPs) in Asia under the impetus of both domestic demands and external intervention, decentralization and participation have gained critical significance as instruments of holistic development. The development paradigms of yesteryear became discredited because of their tilt, if by default, toward creating conditions that harbored bureaucratic domination, bred injustice, caused social and economic disparity, destroyed cultural values, produced public sector corruption and inefficiency, and damaged the environment (Goulet, 1992).
