ABSTRACT
The “deepening” of democracy is an important rationale offered for decentralization. This and other desired outcomes-efficient and effective service delivery, poverty remediation and sustainable development-are premised on including local citizens in decision-making. Democratization and decentralization are thus complexly interwoven. In practical terms, this focuses attention on the inclusion of marginalized groups, their involvement being seen as necessary to prevent perverse outcomes of localization, including increased corruption, persistence of discriminatory practices and capture of resources and decision-making processes by local elites (Bardhan 1996; Blair 1998; Manor 1999). The degree of inclusion of marginalized groups thus serves as an indicator of successful decentralization, particularly in the global South, where multiple and complex dependence relationships in localities severely limit informed citizen participation. One method that pushes inclusion is the imposition of quotas and reservations for marginalized groups. Here we analyze its efficacy by examining India’s large-scale experiment with gender quotas in local government, imposed alongside decentralization reforms in the mid 1990s.
