4 YEARS OF THE GHANA DISTRICT ASSEMBLIES IN OPERATION - DECENTRALIZATION, DEMOCRATIZATION AND ADMINISTRATIVE PERFORMANCE

Ghana's District Assemblies were created in 1989 as 'integrated' decen tralised authorities, combining oversight of deconcentrated line Minis tries with the revenue powers and functions of devolved democratic loc al government. The frequently invoked but little studied relationships among democratisation, decentralisation and changes in the performanc e of government institutions are analysed on the basis of two case-stu dy Districts, defining performance as output effectiveness, responsive ness and process acceptability. Although development output did increa se after democratisation, it remained inadequate and did not show any significantly closer responsiveness to popular needs. This was mainly because local accountability was undermined by continuing central cont rol over staffing and finances, the clash with national policies of re trenchment and the continued power of central government agents. The c ommunal, non-party basis of representation also had a perverse effect on the ability of elected representatives to enhance the legitimacy of local taxation, particularly as the system embodied an unresolved con tradiction between notions of community based self-help and representa tive district government. One of the lessons of the Ghanaian experienc e is that genuine local autonomy in an agreed area-the basic condition for effective accountability-is better based on more modest, local-le vel authorities, leaving larger, expensive functions as well as superv ision of a deconcentrated civil service to more powerful regional admi nistrations.