Devolution for Empowering the Poor: Institutions, norms and power Akmal Hussain and Savail Hussain

This paper examines the dialectic of power between the elite and the poor in the context of the decentralization of governance currently underway in Pakistan. On the basis of a historical analysis of the forms in which state power has been constituted, the paper indicates how the practice of elite power was associated with the emergence of an economic structure at the national level, which tended to generate poverty. The issue of economic efficiency at the local government level is examined for the first time in the context of the power dynamics between elected local elites and the bureaucracy.

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