Democracy of the Local Level: The International IDEA Handbook on participation Representation Conflict Management and Governance

At the heart of all democracies is an essential trust that the individual places in others to fairly pursue the common affairs of all people. This basic trust,sometimes called "social capital", can be only be built from the ground up,from the local level. A vigourous local democratic culture,a vibrant society, and an open, inclusive local government, are fundamental to the longer viability of any democracy. With this handbook, International IDEA seeks to further its mission of promoting sustainable democracy world-wide. We hope to improve not only democratic institutions and processes, but the very quality of governance as well. The handbook focuses on the tier of governance often ignored, the local level closest to the citizens. It does not purport to offer all the answers to designing a system of local democracy or to managing a complex city. Instead, the goal is to provoke a close reexamination of the purpose, form and nature of local democracy world-wide and to share common experiences and to offer the best in scholarship in an accessible, clear, and well-organized volume. This handbook, like other International IDEA projects, recognizes that an essential function of all democracies is the management of social conflict. Civil society groups, public administrators, and international, national, and policy-makers do not simply reflect broader conflicts in society, but instead they shape and manage differences and disputes. In especially divided societies around the world, such as East Timor, Guatemala, Kosovo, Nigeria, or Indonesia, civil society groups and policy makers have learned a key lesson - successful democratization through peace building requires fostering progress toward these objectives at the local level.