The World Bank recently released this valuable review of evidence and conclusions from their social accountability (GPSA) programs (think participatory governance) in a growing number of countries, showing the power of realist methodology for synthesising diverse bodies of qualitative and quantitative evidence:
Aston, T. and G. Zimmer Santos. "Social Accountability and Service Delivery Effectiveness: What is the Evidence for the Role of Sanctions?" Global Partnership for Social Accountability Working Paper. Washington, DC.: World Bank, 2022.
https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/099534209302293819/pdf/IDU0aff7666c06b8804bc00a9170ce2d26867056.pdf
Accountability is often defined as two-pronged, embracing both answerability and sanctioning (eg of elected and unelected officials). It's useful that this report emphasises the latter.
However, it would have been stronger with attention to the flux of power relations between citizenries and the state, and emphasis on varied cultural contextual factors and drivers of political processes.
Also. while conclusions about the value of collaborative approaches are welcome, it seems to me, despite the references to soft power, that too strong a dichotomy in practice between adversarial and collaborative approaches approaches is implied, with the apparent suggestion the latter can or does not involve contestation over an unjust state quo. Perhaps it is better to refer to soft sanctions, and explore this through reputational accountability, for example, as distinct from 'naming and shaming' tactics (which are likely to backfire by damaging citizen-state relationships and undermining the social contract).
I think accountability is 3-pronged, with relationships of power (and freedoms to exercise it in contests eg over the status quo) being the third 'prong' or 'dimension'. The 2-pronged definition leaves the subtleties of positive and negative power relations between citizenries and the state, and diverse contextual factors, in too much of a 'black box'.
What do you think?
The cited World Bank paper gives a good overview of the problem. Further complication in the actually simple contexts do not seem to make sense to me!
Bill Walker I think there is a lot to be said for incentives rather than sanctions. How do we create incentives towards good governance?
I think the United Nations has a role to play in setting standards in the form of best practices in written national constitutions.
Limiting the term of a leader to a maximum total of 10 years is something that the USA introduced in a constitution amendment. This sets a very good example. Other measures to promote freedom and good governance are also needed.
The incentives are likely to be financial as explained in the proposal here:
Preprint Global Economic System (March 2022)
Richard
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