Local Government, Community Mobilization and Living Standard

This study examines the impact of local government reform (devolution plan 2001 of Pakistan) on the community mobilization of the local population, whereas, most of past research focuses on the process of community mobilization. The study also reveals the socio-demographic variation of living standard within rural-urban and provinces. Exploratory factor analysis and principle component analysis is used for the construction of community mobilization and living standard indices over the period of 2009-10 and 2011-12. According to our analysis centralize governments are relatively inefficient in allocating resources by equating marginal effect to community mobilization. Furthermore, results demonstrate that local government systems are more efficient than central government systems. Nevertheless, local units perform better than their counter parts. The findings suggest that more decentralized governments, participatory and local community based governments can improve the community mobilization of the local community.