"Devolution or democratic decentralization has recently assumed increasing importance as a mechanism for achieving democratic participation and for improving service delivery to the grassroots level. This book is about initiating devolution and demonstrates that these reforms will be ineffective or subverted unless they address key pre-requisites." "This is an important book because of the conceptual contributions, and because the authors were actually involved in the initiation and implementation of the devolution plan in Pakistan at the highest policy level. This enabled the documentation of how and where the plan was inadequate from conception to execution. The addition of the epilogue serves to highlight and analyse recent developments."--Jacket.