Does Decentralization Improve Perceptions of Accountability? Attitudinal Evidence from Colombia Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Decentralization is argued to create incentives for local and regional politicians to be more responsive and accountable to their constituents, but few studies have directly tested this claim. We use survey data from Colombia to examine individual-level evaluations of the degree to which decentralization prompts citizens to view department government as more accountable. We estimate the effect of administrative, fiscal, and political decentralization, controlling for participation, political knowledge, confidence in government, education, and income on perceptions of accountability. Our results indicate that administrative and fiscal decentralization improve perceptions of accountability, while political decentralization does not. 2013, Midwest Political Science Association.

published proceedings

  • AMERICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

altmetric score

  • 7.7

author list (cited authors)

  • Escobar-Lemmon, M., & Ross, A. D.

citation count

  • 31

complete list of authors

  • Escobar-Lemmon, Maria||Ross, Ashley D

publication date

  • January 2014

publisher