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The article discusses the major events and debates that have taken place during the reform and democratization of subnational government in Nicaragua from the overthrow of the Somoza dictatorship to late 1984. Developments during this period highlight five distinct areas of reform that must he addressed as part of any process of state democratization: (a) selection and maintenance of local officials; (b) integration of popular participation; (c) definition of the range of local authority; (d) resources for local development; and (e) relation to other levels of government. These issues are addressed through a discussion focusing heavily on local government during the first 3 years, then on the experience of the newly created regional governments and decentralization beginning in mid-1982, and finally on the early-and quite divergent-experience with the development of zonal government between the municipal and regional levels. The specific resolution of these five sets of issues is part of the development of the revolutionary process in Nicaragua, and will strongly shape the political and developmental significance of the resulting local government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nicaragua is undergoing a profound process of social transformation and transition to a new society in which the changes inevitably develop at uneven rhythms among the different levels of social, political, and production relations. The article discusses the changing role of local government in the Nicaraguan revolution. It provides information primarily on the changes in local government, since in many ways these transformations parallel those in other aspects of the society; this discussion also provides insights into the latter. It deals with the longstanding discussion as to whether a process of institutionalization is somehow contradictory to the nature of revolution. The Nicaraguan process shows the possibility and necessity of institutionalization as a means of spreading and consolidating successful experiments throughout the society. Nicaraguan experience is an auspicious example of a revolutionary process, which has developed concrete organs of popular participation and management while thus far avoiding some of the negative effects such as excessive centralization and bureaucratization often considered as inevitable results of the consolidation of such a process.