This paper analyses and compares several case studies on democratic accountability in service delivery, aiming to identifying general themes and lessons. International IDEA selected these projects from more than 60 submitted and assessed in 2010, as they highlight some common themes and lessons critical for understanding democratic accountability in the context of service delivery.
The selection reveals that formal democratic channels for accountability are subject to a number of challenges, including weak and sometimes non-credible political institutions. In the light of such a deficit, most of the studies have a narrow and exclusive focus on the role of civil society organizations in advancing accountability. In spite of this, they show successful attempts to improve public services by advocating specific policy shifts. Many of these agents explicitly avoid using confrontational strategies and try instead to support governments in future provision. This paper discusses whether these strategies are conducive to improving accountability in the long term.
Key Findings:
- Existing formal accountability systems are dysfunctional in many countries due to weak formal mandates, the capacity constraints of parties and parliaments or underlying political practices such as clientelism or corruption.
- Few efforts exist to strengthen political accountability. Efforts to strengthen social accountability are much more common and some of them have had positive effects, leading to concrete improvements in service delivery.
- Direct contacts with government officials seem to be important for getting recommendations adopted successfully. This helps civil society organisations earn the trust of officials, get hold of information that otherwise would be difficult to access, and frame their demands according to the priorities of the government.
- Timing of advocacy campaigns in the electoral cycle is important because politicians may be more open to demands in the months leading up to or following an election.
- Civil society organisations should focus on what can be improved in the future instead of punishing past mistakes or failures.
Recommendations to Policymakers and Civil Society Organisations:
- Balancing political and social accountability efforts needs to be a higher priority. Social actors are not suitable as the sole form of accountability, since they often engage in short term advocacy at a specific point in time. Civil society organizations also are severely limited when it comes to interest representation as they themselves are not accountable to those they claim to represent.
- Formal arrangements need to be in place to ensure enforcement and continuity of accountability mechanisms.
- An issue that needs further attention and research is how social and political actors could interact to make governments accountable, and how such cooperation can be encouraged.
