Rural Institutions and Development

This chapter briefly examines the kinds of rural institutions (RIs) that are involved in rural development (RD), and then focuses upon one particular form of RI considered especially effective for promoting RD — that of local organization (LO). RIs are perhaps best thought of as channels through which rural people govern local activities, organize themselves both for economic endeavor and to obtain public goods, and articulate their problems and needs to "higher level" political and administrative systems. Milton Esman and Norman Uphoff reason their way through a mass of the essential and practical detail associated with LOs, and then settle upon five features as representing the analytical essence of that form of RI. They are the membership base, the source of authority and of legitimacy, the rationale behind or purpose of the body, the nature and extent of functions performed, and the origin of the resource support.