This context puts great pressure on often limited municipal government capacities. The effectiveness and nature of municipal government is a function of locally available resources, skills, structures and management processes. Managerial and political capacity constraints, in part a result of decades of racial inequalities in South African municipalities, are very similar to the constraints faced by Palestinian authorities trying to overcome years of Israeli-appointed local rule. Diversification strategies for resources based economies in Alberta are relevant in Russia. Parallel to the rising importance of municipal governments is the rising importance of the role of the citizen.
Decentralized responsibilities place decision making closer to the citizen.
In many countries municipalities and their communities are experimenting with citizen fora, community input into budgeting processes, community councils for managing primary health care, early childhood education, waste disposal, community security, etc. It is possible now, more than in the past, for citizens to control the institutions which control their lives. The appearance of the local problematic on a global scale has increased activity to strengthen municipal government through international cooperation. Many of these initiatives have focussed on capacity development at the municipal level which follows the traditional approaches of tailored courses at training institutions and universities, provision of equipment, etc. Municipal government, while being highly complex, has many standard institutional features.