A NEW JOURNAL

WORKING PAPERS

IN LOCAL GOVERNANCE AND DEMOCRACY

ISSN 1302-4337

Biannual

99/1

The World Academy for Local Government and Democracy (WALD) is an NGO based in Istanbul, Turkey, dedicated to advancing the principles of human rights and democracy at the level of local government. Its major aims are to promote a greater understanding of and concern for democratization amongst local governments and to engage local governments in a search for alternative organizational and operational ways to further institutionalize democratic, participatory methods and procedures, and a concern for human rights in their activities.

The broad scope of Working Papers reflects WALD's desire, along with many other progressives, to contest the narrowly defined vision of democracy advanced by the purveyors of neoliberalism. Reinventing democracy means breaking through the confines of electoral politicsùimportant as these rights areùto alternative visions of the good society inclusive of economic justice and social equity. It means rejecting nostalgic, parochial conceptions of "the local" as well as overly optimistic scenarios invoking the wonders of globalization. Finally, it means placing collective, grassroots struggle at the center of both theory and practice. Working Papers is offered as a modest contribution toward that goal.