Issues in Decentralised Governance

This is a book essentially on decentralised governance both in the rural and urban areas. It brings together under a single cover thirteen papers on the theme, which appeared earlier in different publications over the years 1984 to 1997. Three of the authors, S.S. Meenakshisundaram, P.C. Mathur (one of the editors of the volume) and M.A. Oommen revised their papers for publication in this volume. In addition to the thineen papers there is a fairly long 'Introduction' by S.N. Jha, the other editor of the volume. It may be noted at this stage that of the 14 contributions, including the 'Introduction', as many as eight papers have taken note in their analysis of the 73rd and 74th Amendments to the Constitution designed arguably to make local bodies in the rural and urban areas, 'institutions of self-government'. The two Amendments are reproduced as Appendix A and Appendix B in this volume for the convenience of readers.