Mobilizing the State: The Erratic Partner in Brazil's Participatory Water Policy.

Rebecca Abers and Margaret Keck"Mobilizing the State: The Erratic Partner in Brazil's Participatory Water Policy"Abstract:Decentralization and participatory governance have been promoted as mechanisms to increase policy responsiveness and efficiency in meeting public needs. Democratic theorists have looked to new participatory mechanisms to deepen democracy. In many developing countries, however, the attributions vested in new councils were exercised in name only by central state agencies. In state-society "partnerships" where state institutions lack the capacity to implement policies, the problem for those seeking to advance the public interest involves not merely access and accountability, but state-building itself. We make this argument through discussion of the recent development of committees for decentralized river basin governance in Brazil. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]