Guyana goes to the Local Government Elections today. It is more than passing strange that this form of government — which was the first to give some measure of autonomy to the citizens of Guyana after the abolition of slavery, when they spontaneously formed the “Village Movement” — has been given such short shrift after our independence in 1966. The “Crown Colony” Colonial Government itself was very centralised as far as running the affairs of the country was concerned, with the Governor and his Executive Council always in control.
The villages were allowed to run their affairs, not necessarily to foster “democratic governance” or autonomy, but rather to place on them the burden of creating a viable social and political economy to survive. And they more than survived: they organised themselves into “Village Councils”, which, for a hundred years, produced leaders that went on to shine in the national sphere, as gradually, the struggle for a more democratic country was waged. During that time, there was never any complaints that leaders could not be found for “local” affairs.
While the laws on Local Government were gradually tweaked over the years, in 1932, a decentralised system of administration via District Commissions was introduced, without reducing the powers or importance of the Village Councils. In 1945, this was further amended when the Local Government Act was consolidated and the Municipal District Councils Act and the Local Authorities Chapter were also introduced. Local government continued to be very vibrant.
The PNC, after 1964, however, in its drive for domination of all facets of national life, changed all of this when — in 1973, the same year that the national elections were massively rigged, with the army collecting ballots — the District Commissioners System was abruptly replaced. Guyana was divided into six administrative regions run by Regional Ministers. This “Ministerial Regional System” was grandiloquently launched to facilitate “linkages between the citizens and the State”. It was a complete failure, since it did not lead to improved delivery of services to the villages, and in fact undermined the Village Councils. The 1974 LGE under the PNC were to be the last, until 1994, after the free and fair elections of 1992.
In 1980, the new constitution introduced by the PNC explicitly eliminated the Village Councils by arbitrarily agglomerating leaders from contiguous villages into “Neighbourhood Democratic Councils” (NDC), and these, in turn, under ten Regional Democratic Councils (RDC). With our linear mode of settlement on the Coastland, the NDCs proved to be very ineffective in bringing back the organic linkages of the Village Councils. After the 1994 LGE, it took another 20 years for the Local Government Laws to be amended, but unfortunately, they retained the cumbersome alienating structures.
This is rather unfortunate, since the quest for moving democracy to the lowest possible levels has been promoted from the beginning of the democratic wave, since the late 18th century – coincident, of course, with our own Village Movement. This quest for decentralisation was suggested by Immanuel Kant, who condemned “administrative centralism…(which)… leads to the loss of liberty of individuals, communities and nations.” He thus spelled out the substantive aspects of modern, deep decentralisation – protection of the individual from big government.
As Kant pointed out, dispersing power to many centres acts to curb excessive concentration of power against the always potentially tyrannical Government. In this way, deep decentralisation serves the political end of enhancing freedom, and thus furthering democracy. This abuse of state power has been a constant in Guyanese history, and has to be addressed within any real Local Government democratic design for Guyana. The principle of “subsidiarity” insists that, for the most effective and responsive governance, several smaller centres of government and power should be created; and, most importantly, that policies be executed at the lowest possible level of government. In Guyana, this has to be the village, not only because of our history, but because of our geography. This principle facilitates the participation of citizens in the decision-making process, and further enhances their freedom.
