Municipalities are frequently incapable of meeting the demands imposed upon them by a highly complex model of local government and through empirical research conducted at 37 municipalities across the South Africa, this book examines the design of the local government framework and its contributing role in the crisis. Appealing to countries that have experimented with, or contemplated, decentralized systems—such as India, South America, and other African countries—this account will also be of interest to students of political science, public administration, and public law.