ABSTRACT
Much of recent development thinking has been underlined by what we may call a claim to local authority. This chapter defends the claim to local authority by grounding it in republican theory. On a republican conception, local authority is characterized by the absence of domination. Accordingly, the chapter further specifies claim to local political authority in three regards. First, granting local stakeholders political authority means that development policies cannot legitimately be implemented without having given local stakeholders an adequate voice in the relevant political decision-making process. Second, this means that the political decision-making process should be guided by certain procedural constraints that, third, regulate both public and private exercises of power through a rule of law and socioeconomic policies and laws.
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