The movement toward decentralization, accountability, and democratic forms of government at the local level is gathering momentum and the enormous costs of corruption are being explicitly recognized. Corruption is an entrenched symptom of misgovernance often reflected in patronage, red tape, ineffective revenue-generating agencies, large-scale bribery in procurement, and failure to deliver services to city dwellers. But when local officials are accountable to their citizens, decisionmaking can become participatory. In turn, a participatory process can be the cornerstone of a strategy to...