Abstract
Abstract This paper analyzes how development cooperation can actively support democratic governance through cooperation in the water sector. To answer this question, we develop an analytical approach based on democratization research and on water governance research. We tested the approach in three donor-supported water projects in Morocco and carried out over seventy interviews with key stakeholders. Our findings show (a) key factors influencing the scope for external support for democratic governance in the water sector, (b) potential negative effects of the support when local elites grasp new resources, and (c) unintended positive spill-over effects of water projects on democratic governance within and beyond the sector (for instance, strengthening formerly marginalized groups). As these empirical findings suggest, there is a potentially large scope of action for supporting democratic governance through water sector cooperation. We therefore highlight the need for more analytical and empirical research on causal interlinkages between these two fields of intervention.
Highlights
We develop an analytical approach based on democratization research and on water governance research
This paper examines the potential of water sector cooperation to promote participation as a key element of democratic governance and thereby bridges the polarized debate between scholars classifying political reform in the region as “authoritarian upgrading” and those identifying trends of liberalization and potentially democratization
Freyburg proposes to analyze this potential through changes in “democratic governance,” i.e. by not focusing on the democratization of the entire political system as such, but rather on progress in implementing democratic norms and principles, such as participation, accountability or transparency in particular political processes and institutions.[5]
Summary
In a context of persisting authoritarianism in most countries of the Middle East and North Africa (mena), development cooperation’s scope of action to. The close interlinkages between water governance and the overall governance environment may encourage spillover effects of sector support for democratic governance to the overall state – society relations One example of these interdependencies is that authoritarian political regimes often hamper progress in water management.[10] Other interlinkages include the societal. The present article, undertakes the endeavor of first developing elements of an analytical framework to assess the potential for reinforcing democratic governance through sector cooperation based on a review of the literature in different research fields It applies this framework to enquire into the interlinkages in water sector cooperation and analyzes the specific conditions of project implementation with respect to (a) general political framework conditions (such as financial and human resources and including informal aspects) and (b) specific conditions regulating access to information and participation. 11 Luiza Toscane, “Les révolutions arabes et l’environnement: Le peuple veut de l’eau au robinet,” L’Anticapitaliste 70 (2015): 12–14; Annabelle Houdret, Irene Pasqua, and Saâd Filali Meknassi, “Access to Environmental Information: A Drive of Accountable Governance in Morocco and Tunisia?” (briefing paper no. 10, Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik, Bonn, 2018)
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