Tanzania Local government reform - towards de-centralissation or recentralisation? This paper present fresh field work data from case studies carried out from January 2014 to Mars 2015 on to what extent the Tanzanian Local Government Reform Programmes (LGRP) 2000-2013 has brought about more democratic decision making processes – and state building on local level. The LGRP is a typical “Blueprint administrative reform funded and guided by international donors’ agencies”. The main findings is that the outcomes of the LGRP on improving the democratic processes at the local level has been limited. We examine to what extent various actors, including national and local CSO, at various levels can exercise horizontal and vertical accountability. We also look at the role of large international mining companies and local governments. Our findings indicate that the LGR have inadequately changed the existing power relations, political elite interests and ideology of the political actors. Real power still lies in the hands of the ruling party elites at the National and District level and constrains power sharing at the Local Government Authority (LGA) levels and at the Ward, Village and Sub village level. The LGR has not provided adequate mechanisms, processes and incentives to hold political elites and the duty bearers to account, neither vertically nor horizontally. Power distribution has remained Top-Down with increasing conflict of interest between the Top and the Bottom. Local governance is inadequately addressing the existing competing interests e.g. personal versus public, party versus collective, local versus national. In addition, mediating competing claims over resources remains, in particular in mineral rich areas. One of the largest constraints is the lack of awareness, information and capacity to process information by citizens, and elected members of the political structures.