ABSTRACT
The literature on community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) and rural development, in general, abounds with examples of decentralized projects that have failed to involve local communities effectively (Bratton, 1994; Guijt and Shah, 1998). One of the key reasons cited for this failure relates to the continued monopoly of power by ruling elites or by particular families within development projects. Examples of such monopoly of power, even in situations where inclusive democracy appears to be working, suggests that Western notions of democracy and governance may be at odds with local notions of democracy in the rural villages in southern Africa.
