Evolution, Restructuring, and Effectiveness of Belgian Local Governments: Lessons for Pakistan

Almost every democratic country has some sort of a local government system. But the success story of these local governments varies from country to country depending upon their democratic values, intensity of public participation, and faith in power sharing. In most of the third world countries the existence of local government is merely taken as a part of a system, thus, rendering them ineffective and fragile. Moreover, they appeared to be a source of conflict because politicians quarrel over the sharing of power. Consequently, the whole system gets paralyzed. Bureaucrats are also often reluctant to concede their powers to local authorities. Disagreements over the financial issues and budgetary planning have been common in these countries. On the contrary, the developed countries have established extremely effective and stable local government systems fully capable of responding to the grass root issues.