Abhijit Banerjee Quotes

Solutions and ideas should come from the bottom up, generated by local communities and not mandated from Washington.

You can have very big local government. By big, I mean very engaged government. Do you measure it in terms of the number of laws? Number of employees? You could make arguments for either one. I tend to think the axis of the size of government is the wrong concern. But I do think that situating power more locally is a legitimate approach.

What we have ignored is what citizens can do and the importance of real involvement of the people versus just having somebody in Washington make a rule.

I want to see far more decisions taken far closer to the patients, the passengers and the pupils. Far more power for locally and regionally elected politicians who understand best the needs of their areas. And far more say too for the dedicated staff at all levels in health and education.

I am often reminded that the wellspring of Vermont liberty flows from Main Street, not State Street.

We do need an attitude of leadership in our government which demonstrates faith in major population centres outside of Perth.

I think a lot of things could be handled locally.

Throughout my political career, I've believed in the concept of home rule. Some call it local control. Whichever phrase you use, the concept is the same - the best decisions are those made closest to those who will be impacted by the decisions.

If our society is to address social issues, it will be done at the local level or not at all.

Devolution [decentralization of government] cannot stop at the State House. It must go down to City Hall.

You can't run a city by people who do not live there.

I hope that we increasingly shift power to local governments.

I do not believe that the best ideas come from Washington.

The people who care the most about the folks in your community are living in the community. They don't live in Washington, D.C.

Government tends to believe in top-down solutions, and government fears of bottom-up solutions.

During the launch of the 'Ama Gaon, Ama Bikash' scheme, I directly spoke to women representatives from the interior villages of Sambalpur and Narayanpatna. From the way the women explained the issues pertaining to their villages and their collective needs, I understood that women empowerment has reached even the grassroots of the democratic setup.

I think it is time for a radical federalism in this country, where people trust innovation coming from the local level and ramp that up.

Rwanda is a very open and free country. Key to our recovery as a nation has a range of grassroots, citizen-centered polices we call "homegrown solutions." The idea that Rwanda is highly controlled from the center belies the reality, which is that citizens in every village have a powerful say in how things get done. We prize accountability and Rwandans are quickly adapting themselves to the possibilities of a digital economy.

In a true democracy of India, the unit is the village.

Listen to the people on the ground. They have all the solutions in the world.

There is nothing more dangerous than to build a society with a large segment of people in that society who feel that they have no stake in it; who feel that that have nothing to lose. People who have stake in their society, protect that society, but when they don't have it, they unconsciously want to destroy it.

The emphasis placed by more and more companies on corporate social responsibility, symbolises the recognition that prosperity is best achieved in an inclusive society.

Once I learned about grassroots organizing, I got so enamored with it because I thought 'Wow this is the way you do it!'

There is now a desperate need for a London-wide left caucus of those interested in the GLC and local councils so that we can compare and discuss what is happening in each borough.

When the panchayat raj is established, public opinion will do what violence can never do.