Citizen political knowledge and accountability

Survey evidence on devolution in Kenya

Bibliographic Data

ID6263799
AuthorsKen Ochieng’ Opalo (0000-0002-8317-0317, Georgetown University, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume33
Issue4
Pages849-869
Publication date2020-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGovernance (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0952-1895 • E-ISSN: 1468-0491
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/gove.12498
OpenAlexW2939571309
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited64

Devolution complicates citizens’ ability to assign responsibility for the provision of public goods and services to different tiers of government. Misattribution of responsibility limits the effectiveness of electoral accountability in the nested principal–agent relationships comprising voters, politicians, and bureaucrats. This raises two important questions. First, how do citizens learn about the functions of different tiers of government under devolution? Second, how do levels of political knowledge condition citizens’ evaluations of subnational governments? Using cross‐sectional and panel survey data from Kenya (2014–2018), this article shows that voters accumulate knowledge through exposure to government services, and that gender and partisanship mediate knowledge accumulation. In addition, exposed citizens are more likely to give positive evaluations of subnational politicians, despite the fact that such exposure may reveal subnational governments’ low capacity, ineffectiveness, and governance gaps. These findings advance our understanding of the dynamics of political accountability under devolution

Accountability · Business · Corporate governance · Devolution (biology · Government (linguistics · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · International Development and Aid · Law · Local Government Finance and Decentralization · Public Administration