Bibliography

This paper sets out to perform two tasks, namely to (a) explore and analyze cross-cultural evidence of social accountability in the developing world and (b) evaluate the claims of the advocates of social accountability in view of the socio-economic and political dynamics. The role of civic engagement in ensuring public accountability has become a catchword in recent years. There is a consensus that social accountability mechanisms based on civic engagement can hold public officials accountable by complementing state accountability mechanisms. However, there are a number of contextual factors facilitating as well as inhibiting the effectiveness of social accountability. These are explored by the authors as described above.