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This comprehensive volume looks at local governments in rural India as an opportunity to broaden the democratic structure and space for popular participation in local governance. It reviews select state models of decentralization in the country and assesses the form of democratic development possible through the institution of local governments. The work represents an emerging genre of literature on decentralization that is not judgmental on the various approaches to decentralization. It neither takes a pessimistic view of the world of decentralization - marred by caste and gender disparities, clientelism, rent-seeking and nepotism - nor romanticizes it. The essays grapple with the institutional design of decentralization and show how this could influence the social structure and make decentralization a pragmatic philosophy of development rather than a mere rhetoric. By moving beyond the normative notions of decentralization the collection sensitizes us to the politics of decentralization.