Local Democracy and Development: The Kerala People’s Campaign for Decentralized Planning

In this history, a key figure in the People’s Campaign in Kerala provides an insider’s account of one of the world’s most extensive and successful experiments in decentralization. Launched in 1996, the campaign mobilized over three million of Kerala’s 30 million people and resulted in bottom-up development planning in all 1052 of its villages and urban neighbourhoods. The authors detail the background to the campaign, trace its several stages, asses problems and how they were solved or not, and evaluate concrete results and reforms. The work tells a story of mass mobilization and innovation as bureaucratic opposition was overcome, corruption and cynicism were rooted out, and parliamentary democracy prevailed. Considering both the theoretical and applied significance of the campaign in the context both of India’s development since independence and of international debates about decentralization, civil society and empowerment, this study seeks to offer valuable lessons for sustainable development world-wide.