Relevance of Community Governance for Basic Service Delivery in Nepal: An Empirical Study

Abstract

After World War II, developing societies around the world experienced a range of problems which included: economic and political crises; dysfunctional governments and institutional failures, causing excessive political pressures on public institutions; pathological disorders in bureaucracy; structural complexities in public service delivery; and rampant corruption in public resource management. In the late 1960s, several structural and pluralist approaches emerged to address institutional problems and inefficiencies in public service delivery, but these accentuated state-centrism and supported greater administrative and legislative powers among the established national political economy regimes. This not only crippled public services, but also strengthened the top-down mechanisms in decision making and bolstered upward accountability in the institutional structures. Mainly based on neoliberal ideology, 'governance', as a concept and as an application, gradually emerged and was utilised to address institutional crises, poor governing systems, economic vulnerability and ambiguities of service delivery.