Local Governance in Yemen: Six Decades of Disarray

Abstract

The domain of this research is the study, analysis and comparison of laws and legislations regulating the domestic affairs in Yemen from the early sixties of the past century up to date. The research looks into the wrong orientation of the laws and regulations regarding domestic affairs during the different phases, starting with looking into titles of each regulation and including details of the mechanism of forming national authorities and their mandates.

It becomes clear through this research that the majority of legislations of the 1990s, for instance Law No. 52/1991 regarding the national authority, were more developed and mature than the in-force Law No. 4/2000 regarding the national authority. The same is true with the propaganda that followed the so-called "national government system" as an official trend since 2007 up to date, despite risks and defaults in its mechanism for administering the internal domain. This has been embodied by the issuance of the National Strategy of Local Governance 2008-2015. National Governance jumped again to the fore front through adding it to the list of the National vision for Building the New State of Yemen.

This research finally reaches to several outcomes and recommendations which the researcher believes to have a role in creating an active mechanism for administering the national domain that benefits from the Yemeni experience in that field for almost six decades, leading to avoiding the quasi and instable conditions witnessed during that period.