From Inertia to Public Action Sina Odugbemi and Taeku Lee, Editors Public Disclosure AuthorizedPublic Disclosure AuthorizedPublic Disclosure AuthorizedPublic Disclosure Authorized 61639 ACCOUNTABILITY THROUGH PUBLIC OPINION FROM INERTIA TO PUBLIC ACTION ACCOUNTABILITY THROUGH PUBLIC OPINION FROM INERTIA TO PUBLIC ACTION SINA ODUGBEMI AND TAEKU LEE Editors © 2011 The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank 1818 H Street NW Washington DC 20433 Telephone: 202-473-1000 Internet: www.worldbank.org All rights reserved 1 2 3 4 14 13 12 11 This volume is a product of the staff of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank. The fi ndings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this volume do not necessarily refl ect the views of the Executive Directors of The World Bank or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply any judgement on the part of The World Bank concerning the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. Rights and Permissions The material in this publication is copyrighted. Copying and/or transmitting portions or all of this work without permission may be a violation of applicable law. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank encourages dissemination of its work and will normally grant permission to reproduce portions of the work promptly. For permission to photocopy or reprint any part of this work, please send a request with complete information to the Copyright Clearance Center Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, USA; telephone: 978-750-8400; fax: 978-750-4470; Internet: www.copyright.com. All other queries on rights and licenses, including subsidiary rights, should be addressed to the Offi ce of the Publisher, The World Bank, 1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20433, USA; fax: 202-522-2422; e-mail: pubrights@world bank.org. ISBN: 978-0-8213-8505-0 eISBN: 978-0-8213-8556-2 DOI: 10.1596/978-0-8213-8505-0 Cover photograph: Joseph Luoman; ©iStockphoto.com / luoman Cover design: Critical Stages Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Accountability through public opinion : from inertia to public action / [edited by] Sina Odugbemi, Taeku Lee. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8213-8505-0—ISBN 978-0-8213-8556-2 (electronic) 1. Government accountability. 2. Public services—Public opinion. 3. Organizational effectiveness. 4. Performance—Management. I. Odugbemi, Sina. II. Lee, Taeku. JF1351.A246 2010 320.01—dc22 2010032302 v Contents Contributors xi Acknowledgments xxi Abbreviations xxiii Section I Foundations 1 1 Taking Direct Accountability Seriously 3 Sina Odugbemi and Taeku Lee 2 The (Im)Possibility of Mobilizing Public Opinion? 11 Taeku Lee 3 The Public and Its (Alleged) Handiwork 25 Sina Odugbemi Section II Structural Context 35 4 Gaining State Support for Social Accountability 37 Harry Blair 5 The Workings of Accountability: Contexts and Conditions 53 Enrique Peruzzotti 6 Associations without Democracy: The West Bank in Comparative Perspective 65 Amaney Jamal Section III Information and Accountability 83 7 Necessary Conditions for Increasing Accountability 85 Arthur Lupia vi Contents 8 Information Processing, Public Opinion, and Accountability 95 Charles S. Taber and Everett Young 9 Information, Social Networks, and the Demand for Public Goods: Experimental Evidence from Benin 123 Leonard Wantchekon and Christel Vermeersch Section IV Building Capacity through Media Institutions (Media and Journalism) 137 10 Training Journalists for Accountability in Argentina 139 Laura Zommer 11 Well-Informed Journalists Make Well-Informed Citizens: Coverage of Governance Issues in the Democratic Republic of Congo 151 Mary Myers 12 Communication Technologies for Accountability 159 Anne-Katrin Arnold Section V Deliberation and Accountability 181 13 Minipublics: Designing Institutions for Effective Deliberation and Accountability 183 Archon Fung 14 Deliberation and Institutional Mechanisms for Shaping Public Opinion 203 Baogang He 15 Creating Citizens through Communication Education in the United States 215 William Keith 16 Participatory Constitution Making in Uganda 235 Devra Moehler Section VI Power and Public Opinion (Mobilizing Public Opinion) 255 17 Collective Movements, Activated Opinion, and the Politics of the Extraordinary 257 Taeku Lee Contents vii 18 Public Narrative, Collective Action, and Power 273 Marshall Ganz 19 “Social Accountability” as Public Work 291 Peter Levine 20 Holding Government Accountable through Informal Institutions: Solidary Groups and Public Goods Provision in Rural China 307 Lily Tsai 21 Adult Civic Education and the Development of Democratic Culture: Evidence from Emerging Democracies 319 Steven E. Finkel Section VII Case Studies 331 22 Is Social Participation Democratizing Politics? 333 Vera Schattan P. Coelho 23 Stimulating Activism through Champions of Change 347 Samuel Paul 24 Informed Public Opinion and Offi cial Behavior Change 359 Gopakumar Thampi 25 Overcoming Inertia and Generating Participation: Insights from Participatory Processes in South Africa 377 Imraan Buccus and Janine Hicks 26 Civil Society Representation in São Paulo 389 Adrian Gurza Lavalle 27 Embedding the Right to Information: The Uses of Sector-Specifi c Transparency Regimes 403 Rob Jenkins Section VIII Conclusion 413 28 How Can Citizens Be Helped to Hold Their Governments Accountable? 415 Taeku Lee and Sina Odugbemi Appendix A 427 Appendix B 479 Index 487 viii Contents Figures 1.1. The Missing Link in Direct Accountability 6 2.1. From General Publics to Stakeholders 17 2.2. From Passive Inputs to Direct Decision Making 19 2.3. The Ladder of Participatory Inputs 20 2.4. From Ritual to Co-governance 21 2.5. Civil Society and Authorizing Public Opinion 21 3.1. Social Accountability Building Books 31 3.2. The Open, Inclusive Public Sphere 32 4.1. Spectrum of State Response to Social Accountability Initiatives 38 4.2. Spectrum of State Support for Social Accountability Mechanisms 39 12.1. Exchanges between States and Citizens 161 16.1. Predicted Values of Institutional Trust 240 18.1. Mobilization of Others 274 18.2. From Values to Action 276 18.3. Motivating Action 277 18.4. Elements of a Story 280 18.5. Self, Us, Now 283 19.1. Human Development and Voting 294 19.2. Local Community Action on Issues Such as Poverty and Employment Housing 295 19.3. Spending Time Every Week with People at Sporting, Cultural, or Communal Events 296 24.1. Group: Kisumu Government and Utilities 370 24.2. Institutional Setting for Implementing CRCs 371 28.1. The Process of Public Opinion Formation 418 28.2. Long and Short Routes to Accountability 422 28.3. The Stairway to Mobilization Process 423 28.4. Types of Public 424 28.5. Climbing the Stairway to Mobilization 425 Tables 4.1. Social Accountability Mechanisms and Their Origins 40 6.1. OLS Regression Analysis of the Relationship between Demographic Variables and Levels of Interpersonal Trust among the General Palestinian Population 75 6.2. Degree of Associational Clientelism and Levels of Interpersonal Trust 76 6.3. Measuring Interpersonal Trust, Support for Democratic Institutions, and Civic Engagement 77 [...]... so-called accountability initiative has worked, and I will pour resources into the work, but I don’t believe these examples exist The third is the tendency to take an accountability mechanism that has been shown to work and turn it into a technical tool without the engagement with critical publics and public opinion that made it work in the first place That is what has tended to happen with tools such as public. .. conception of public opinion is discursive (Herbst 1998) Public opinion is not blind prejudice, nor is it a mere aggregation of attitudes that have not been reflected upon It is what crystallizes at the end of a process of debate and discussion, with all the relevant information available in the public arena Public opinion, thus understood, is at the heart of politics; public opinion, thus understood, is... constructing public spheres and strong civil society organizations), and mediating factors (e.g., communicative networks that enable the transmission of mobilizing frames and the cultivation of civic education) needed to build the capacity for activated public opinion These building blocks facilitate movement onward and upward along what we term “the stairway to mobilization” from indifferent general publics to. .. Peace and Conflict Resolution Developing concepts and approaches to strengthen accountability of institutions in the governance and development sector constitute the core of Thampi’s current professional experience A large part of this work has been carried out through applications of participatory monitoring systems and public advocacy tools in South Asia, Africa, and East and Central Asia He was a... as a 5 6 Accountability through Public Opinion fundamental part of the governance agenda The initiatives intent on promoting the accountability of governments to their own citizens will have a secure future in international development with potentially exciting development outcomes The Proverbial Missing Middle This is a book about direct accountability, that is, the ability of citizens to directly... grant to the El País of Madrid and received the “Argentine Attorney Award” from the Asociación de Entidades Periodísticas Argentinas (ADEPA) in 2005, the “Italian Young Journalist Prize” in 2002, the “In Depth Journalist Award” from Inter-American Press Association, Houston, 1999, and the Public Good” award from ADEPA, 1998 Acknowledgments This book contains a compilation of contributions to a workshop... regimes seek to control the flow of information, constrain the size and scope of the public sphere, and muzzle the press The power they fear is the power of public opinion, because they know that much of their power and legitimacy depends on it (Hume 1987 [1742]) We argue that, by the same token, at the heart of any serious analysis of direct accountability is the nature of regulative public opinion That... seek to demonstrate in this volume Coda on the Arab Spring: March 2011 As this volume is going into production, the literal embodiment of accountability through public opinion has been spreading like wildfire in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa On an unprecedented scale in recent history—perhaps the fall of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989 compares—a groundswell of latent public. .. Sadly, accountability is becoming the latest in a long line of international development buzzwords At the time of writing, actors in development appear to delight in announcing their intention to “promote accountability far more often than they know what it means to do so, and certainly far more than they are committed to doing what it takes: in time, treasure, political fights, and so on 3 4 Accountability. .. indifferent general publics to voting publics, attentive publics, active publics, and fully mobilized publics And the mechanisms that move us up this stairway range from information sharing and attitude change to behavior change and the sustainable mobilization of mass publics Ultimately, the events of the Arab Spring reinforce our firm conviction that good governance is beholden to communicative processes and . Authorized 61639 ACCOUNTABILITY THROUGH PUBLIC OPINION FROM INERTIA TO PUBLIC ACTION ACCOUNTABILITY THROUGH PUBLIC OPINION FROM INERTIA TO PUBLIC ACTION SINA ODUGBEMI AND TAEKU LEE Editors © 2011 The International. photograph: Joseph Luoman; ©iStockphoto.com / luoman Cover design: Critical Stages Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Accountability through public opinion : from inertia to public. From Inertia to Public Action Sina Odugbemi and Taeku Lee, Editors Public Disclosure AuthorizedPublic Disclosure AuthorizedPublic Disclosure AuthorizedPublic Disclosure Authorized 61639 ACCOUNTABILITY