African Studies Keyword: Democracy

Cheeseman, Nic; Sishuwa, Sishuwa

doi:10.1017/asr.2021.43

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 70 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…PB programs in sub-Saharan Africa are largely consultative, with citizens holding relatively minimal decision-making authority in Senegal or Kenya (Porto de Oliveira, 2017b; Cheeseman and Sishuwa, 2021). The projects in Senegal and Kenya often reflect the preferences of elders and men, to the exclusion of women's and youths' voices (Patnaik, 2021; Touchton and Wampler, 2020).…”

Section: Sub-saharan Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

Participatory budgeting and well-being: governance and sustainability in comparative perspective

Touchton

McNulty²,

Wampler³

2023

JPBAFM

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

PurposeParticipatory budgeting's (PB’s) proponents hope that bringing development projects to historically underserved communities will improve well-being by extending infrastructure and services. This article details the logic connecting PB to well-being, describes the evolution of PB programs as they spread around the world and consolidates global evidence from research that tests hypotheses on PB's impact. The purpose of this paper is to address these issues.Design/methodology/approachUnstructured literature review and comparative case study across five global regions.FindingsThe authors find evidence for PB's impact on well-being in several important contexts, mostly not only in Brazil, but also in Peru and South Korea. They also find that very few rigorous, large-N, comparative studies have evaluated the relationship between PB and well-being and that the prospects for social accountability and PB's sustainability for well-being are not equally strong in all contexts. They argue that PB has great potential to improve well-being, but program designs, operational rules and supporting local conditions must be favorable to realize that potential.Originality/valueThis is one of the few efforts to build theory on where and why the authors would expect to observe relationships between PB and well-being. It is also one of the first to consolidate global evidence on PB's impact.

show abstract

Section: Sub-saharan Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

Participatory budgeting and well-being: governance and sustainability in comparative perspective

Touchton

McNulty²,

Wampler³

2023

JPBAFM

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Many countries with multiparty democracies at the national level have limited local political competition, especially in rural and ethnically homogeneous areas. A single leader and party often dominate local politics, thus discouraging electoral accountability (Cheeseman and Sishuwa 2021; Mamdani 2018). As mentioned above, deference to public officials is not consistent with PB’s goal of circumventing clientelism in development policy.…”

Section: Participatory Institutions In Semi-democratic Environmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite decentralization, the new subnational governments are still quite distant from ordinary citizens and improved service delivery has not materialized. In addition, Kenyan officials have used devolution to extend a predatory state and enrich themselves (Cheeseman and Sishuwa 2021). Citizens may feel connected to governments along ethnic lines, but the poor quality and limited public goods provisions mean that citizens are unlikely to hold similar positions as government officials on their communities’ development needs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Participation, Development, and Accountability: A Survey Experiment on Democratic Decision-Making in Kenya

Touchton

Wampler

2023

Am Polit Sci Rev

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Many governments in semi-democratic regimes have adopted participatory democratic institutions to promote development and accountability. But limited resources, weak civil society, and a history of authoritarian politics make building subnational democratic institutions daunting. Do participatory institutions expand accountability in these environments? We address this question by evaluating citizen decision-making in Kenya’s local participatory processes. We first administered a survey experiment surrounding citizens’ development policy preferences to 9,928 respondents in four Kenyan counties. We then nest this survey experiment in participant observation and over 80 elite interviews. Our conclusions are mixed: respondents readily change their policy preferences to align with the government’s policy actions, which suggests limited prospects for accountability. However, respondents use participatory budgeting venues to question government officials about missing projects, which provides a potential foundation for accountability. Yet, uncompetitive local elections, the absence of independent civil society’s participation, and new program rules are likely to limit democratic accountability.

show abstract

“…In some areas, complete democratic breakdowns occasioned by the re-emergence of military coups are evident. As a result, the democratic progress recorded across the continent has been undermined (International IDEA 2021) and electoral autocracy has become the contemporary form of dictatorship (Kavasoglu 2021), especially where democracy is viewed as a Western imposition on Africa -a common narrative among the African political elite (Cheeseman and Sishuwa 2021). (Mbow et al 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Rise of Autocracy in the Sahel of Africa: Insights from Resource Curse Theory

Akinyetun,

Ogunbodede,

Ahoton

et al. 2023

Research in Social Change

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The countries in the Sahel, aside from being located in the same geopolitical region, also share similar socioeconomic and socio-political challenges. This includes political instability, insecurity, poor governance, climate change and democratic erosion – among others. The corrosion of the democratic gains recorded since the spread of democracy in the 1990s and the rise of autocratic regimes has become prevalent in the last decade. The subversion of the electoral process, limited freedom and military takeovers are an indication of the spread of autocracy in Africa (generally) and the Sahel (specifically). The paper which is anchored on the resource curse theory argues that the Sahel is rich in natural resources that when not properly managed breed corruption and increase the chances of conflict and the likelihood of military takeover. More so, faced with weak institutions, autocrats take advantage of abundant resources to increase patronage networks at the expense of development and democratic growth. The paper found that the rise of illiberal regimes is on the rise in Africa; suggesting a wave of autocracy. This is evident in the spate of autocratic and highly defective democracies in the region; one-party dominance; re-emergence of military coups; and circumvention of term limits. It is therefore concluded that electoral autocracy is on the rise in Africa and is a common phenomenon in the Sahel. This is given impetus by weak institutions which makes it difficult for rulers to utilize resource wealth for human capital development. To this end, the paper adopts a qualitative approach that relies on secondary data sourced from peer-reviewed journal articles, government reports, briefs and internet sources.

show abstract

African Studies Keyword: Democracy

Cited by 9 publications

References 70 publications

Participatory budgeting and well-being: governance and sustainability in comparative perspective

Participatory budgeting and well-being: governance and sustainability in comparative perspective

Participation, Development, and Accountability: A Survey Experiment on Democratic Decision-Making in Kenya

The Rise of Autocracy in the Sahel of Africa: Insights from Resource Curse Theory

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About