Rural policy and direct local participation: Democracy, inclusiveness, collective agency, and locality-based policy

During the closing decades of the twentieth century, the federal government has experienced a period of delegitimation and fiscal crisis that has led to decentralization of some federal programs and a fledgling revival of com munity- and place-based policies. These and other locality-based policies a re not new tools. The renewed interest in this type of policy raises questi ons about their effectiveness. Historic and recent records of locality-base d policies suggest that they are not panaceas for achieving programmatic go als. Three cases provide an empirical, comparative basis for assessing the liabilities of locality-based policies: the Third New Deal efforts to insti tute county land-use planning; Mexico's experiences with community forestry ; and emerging grassroots ecosystem management movements in the western Uni ted States. Among other factors, the degree of local democracy and inclusiv eness and the quality of local social, economic, and physical infrastructur es are identified as important in mediating effective policy implementation .