Cambodia has always had a centralist government system in its history. Since 1994 the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation has provided policy consultancy and capacity building on democratic decentralization to the Royal Cambodian Government. First successes were achieved quickly: the first local council elections were held in 2002, marking the beginning of ”local self-administration”. Since then efforts have been made to introduce democratic structures at district and province levels as well. The political debate has been controversial and progress slow. In August 2007 the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation invited Dr. Schuster, the Governing Mayor of the City of Stuttgart, to assist in this endeavor.