Local self-government

Local Government is an integral part of the three-tier system of the government  introduced on the recommendation of Balwant Rai Mehta Committee  on  its report  24 November 1957  establishment of the scheme of ‘democratic decentralisation’ which finally came to be known as Panchayati Raj. A democratic form of Government must be sustained by a system of vigorous local self-governing institutions.  Local Government institutions provide an opportunity to the people to participate freely and actively in the Government which they formulate for their areas.  These are necessary to encourage and foster initiative, independence and enterprise on the part of the people. First prime minister of India, pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, while inaugurating the first Local self-Government Ministers’ Conference in 1948, said, “Local self have got rather into the habit of thinking democracy at the top and not so much below.  Democracy at the top may not be a success unless you build on its foundation from below.”

“The local assemblies of citizens,” says De Tocqueville, “add to the strength of free nations.”  “Town meetings are to liberty what primary schools are to science; they bring it within the people’s reach, they teach men how to use and how to enjoy it.  A Nation may establish a free Government, but without local institutions it cannot have the spirit of liberty. Democracy on the national scale can function in a healthy manner only if it is supported and nourished by democratic Local Government.” Emphasizing the importance of Local Self Government. Local Self-Government offers the best opportunity to the people to bring local knowledge, interest and enthusiasm, to bear on the solution of their problems. The Local Government fulfils all the domestic needs of civilized community.  It also creates among the citizens personal interest in their common affairs and throws the field open for their constructive and creative activities.  It also serves as an expression of political consciousness and as a means of political education and renders the citizens fit for their civic duties and responsibilities, by enabling them to participate in public affairs.  It also generates in people an aesthetic sense that makes them beautiful and adorns the land they inhabit.  It provides the best opportunity to men and women to bring their local knowledge and enthusiasm to bear on the solution of their own peculiar problems.”

  Lord Rippon’s resolution of 1882 emphasized the need for political and popular education through Local Government: “It is not primarily with a view t improvement in administration that this measure is put forward and supported.  It is chiefly designed as an instrument of political and popular education.” Highlighting the importance of Local Government as an educational institution, Laski says, “the institution of Local Government is educative in perhaps a higher degree at least contingency, than any other part of Government.  And it must be remembered that there is no other way of bringing the mass of citizens into intimate contact with persons responsible for decisions.”

Local Government is a system which ensures effective participation of citizens in administration and makes them realize their responsibilities towards the society.  The Local Government acts as a school of democracy.  The success of national democracy largely depends upon the success of democracy at the grassroots level.  The proposition that self-governing localities are the citadels and schools of democracy has been stressed by an Advisory Committee of the Commission on inter-Governmental Relations (U.S.A.) as follows:  “Local Governments are to total Government what basic tissues are to human body. Without them, Government would have no vitality.  The counties, cities, Towns, Villages and Boroughs serve as training schools for the leaders of Government, and in the affairs of Local Government are tried those who aspire to state and National offices.”

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru underlining the importance of Local self-Government in free democratic India remarked, “Local self Government is and must be the basis of any true system of democracy.” Democracy is nothing unless it means in the last resort, letting the people have their own way, not only in the mass, by means of an aggregate vote in a nation-wide scale, but also in their lesser groups and societies of which greater societies are made up, and through which it is made articulate in such a way that the less clamorous voices can be heard.” Democracy on the National scale can function in a healthy manner only if it is supported and nourished by democratic Local Government”. Local Government functions as a training ground for emerging leaders, who, after acquiring experience in the art of politics and Government at the local level, rise to the State and National level.  In our country Local Governments have produced many leaders of national eminence and stature like ferozeshah Mehta, Motilal Nehru, Subhash Chander Bose, Vallabhbhai patel, Lala Lajpat Rai, etc., who were shining examples of sober and healthy local politics and restored to these local institutions, the authority and dignity they deserved.  Lord Bryce has remarked,  “it is enough to observe that the countries in which democratic Government has most attracted the interest of the people and drawn from their ranks have been Switzerland and the United States, especially those Northern and Western States in which rural Local Government has been most developed.  These examples justify the maxim that the best school of democracy and the best guarantee for its success is the practice of Local Self Government”.