ABSTRACT

We examine the gap between theory and practice in social accountability mechanisms to improve local governance performance in Tanzania. We do so through drawing on an ethnographic investigation tracing lines of blame and responsibility for service delivery, from individual citizens up to the central state incorporating a total of 340 interviews and 12 focussed group discussions. We have two keys findings: Firstly, that there is a wide divergence between formal lines of accountability and where actors direct blame for performance failure in practice. Secondly, building a collective understanding of this divergence provides an effective starting point for intervention to improve performance. Our conclusion is that dominant assumptions on social accountability interventions require significant revision in light of our findings.

摘要

我们研究了社会问责机制的理论与实践之间的差距，以提高坦桑尼亚的地方治理绩效。我们通过利用民族志调查追踪服务提供的责任和责任来做到这一点，从个人公民到中央国家，共进行了 340 次采访和 12 次重点小组讨论。我们有两个关键发现：首先，正式的问责制与行动者在实践中直接指责绩效失败的地方之间存在很大分歧。其次，建立对这种分歧的集体理解为干预以提高绩效提供了一个有效的起点。我们的结论是，根据我们的发现，对社会责任干预的主要假设需要进行重大修改。