An experiment in popular participation.

• Author: Fisher, Sidney
• Position: Feature Report on Canadian Lawyers Abroad

One of the most common problems throughout the world is a lack of trust in government. This often results in large sectors of the citizens of a country feeling unrepresented or uninvolved. However, attempts to increase participation through the decentralization of government may fail if citizens cannot understand the laws that govern them.

There has been a tendency to believe that law is irretrievably complicated and there is no purpose in trying to avoid legal language that is beyond the comprehension of most people. But the challenge to draft precise, direct and straightforward language has been undertaken and many countries, including Canada, have made considerable headway over the last 25 years.

Bolivia has been trying to involve the 60% of its population that is indigenous in local government, hoping thereby to win its trust. Although there are growing numbers of poor indigenous people in cities, most of them live in the rural areas. Complicated and opaque legislation formed a barrier to their development. The government of Bolivia had not succeeded in removing this barrier when the election in December 2005 brought a radical change of government through a populist movement of the indigenous people. However the challenge to simplify the legislation remained.

Having completed several other legal and administrative projects in Bolivia for CESO, we were asked to carry out a public sector reform project in Bolivia regarding municipal finance legislation. This involved a review of Bolivia's Government Administration and Control Act, in light of the needs of municipal governments. In particular, we were asked to propose amendments to the law to make it work better, focusing on small municipalities whose lack of resources, both human and financial, make it difficult for them to comply with complicated financial accounting and reporting requirements. We met with a number of Bolivian mayors and municipal councillors, and made recommendations to a commission of the Bolivian Congress on how to improve the administration and control of municipal finances. We focused particularly on Bolivia's smaller municipalities, where complex laws, a lack of local banking services and limited human and financial resources made compliance with legislative requirements difficult. We reported our recommendations to the Commission of Decentralization and Popular Participation, a commission of the House of Representatives of the Bolivian Congress, whose mandate was...