Rural Policy and Direct Local Participation: Democracy, Inclusiveness, Collective Agency, and Locality-Based Policy*

During the closing decades of the twentieth century, the federal government has experienced a period of delegitimation and fiscal crisis that has led to decentralization of some federal programs and a fledgling revival of community- and place-based policies. These and other locality-based policies are not new tools. The renewed interest in this type of policy raises questions about their effectiveness. Historic and recent records of locality-based policies suggest that they are not panaceas for achieving programmatic goals. Three cases provide an empirical, comparative basis for assessing the liabilities of locality-based policies: the Third New Deal efforts to institute county land-use planning; Mexico's experiences with community forestry; and emerging grassroots ecosystem management movements in the western United States. Among other factors, the degree of local democracy and inclusiveness and the quality of local social, economic, and physical infrastructures are identified as important in mediating effective policy implementation.