Political Accountability Research Articles

Chinese Technology and the Transformation of the Rural Economy in Ghana: Evidence From Galamsey in the Ashanti and Savannah Regions

Abstract The recent Chinese involvement in small-scale gold mining in Ghana has received wide publicity and scholarly attention. While the literature has focused on environmental sustainability, political accountability, and institutional reforms, it is yet to examine local adoption of Chinese technology and its impact on Ghana’s rural economy. We argue that it is in the interstices between the formal economy and entrepreneurship within the informal economy that opportunities for Chinese interventions emerge. Using evidence from Manso Akropong in the Ashanti region and Bole in the Savannah region, this article shows that, while Chinese technology’s impact is transformative, the outcomes are divergent in different regions. In Manso Akropong, the intensification of mining backed by Ghanaian–Chinese collaborations has led to the environmental destruction, creating competition between gold mining and cocoa farming that had underpinned Ghana’s rural prosperity. In Bole, where less aggressive Chinese technology such as Changfa and rubber mats are incorporated without direct Chinese participation, a more sustainable pattern of growth has emerged. This comparative study suggests that besides the large-scale projects and state-led training programmes, grassroots actors like informal artisanal miners are at the forefront of technology transfer in the China–Africa encounter.

The dichotomy of electoral choice in fragmented societies: Prospects of 2023 Nigerian general elections

Elections in fragmented states are usually contested along the divisive lines present within the geo polity, and this plays an important role in the emergence of political leaders. Nigeria, one of the most heterogeneous countries in the world, has exhibited predominantly ethnic voting since the consolidation of its fourth republic, and this has contributed to mixed socioeconomic and political fortunes. Using a qualitative approach based on secondary sources such as, books, journals, articles, this study highlights that mature democracies exhibit retrospective voting, through which objective scrutiny of government performance in the economy and other aspects of the state is done to determine whether to reward or punish political leaders at the polls. The limitations of primal and ethnic voting considerations in Nigeria, visible in development outcomes, call for a new guardrail to electoral choice. This paper argues the need for economic voting to predominate the ethnic considerations that determine electoral choice, as this can guarantee developmental outputs, and ensure political accountability that benefit the state. This study concludes that, if Nigeria is to experience significant changes in its fortunes going forward, the 2023 elections must change the narrative from non-evaluative considerations to evaluative voting considerations, for positive socioeconomic dividends.

Estimating the Effects of Political Instability in Nascent Democracies

Abstract In this paper, we revisit and examine the effect of political instability on institutional quality. To this end, we exploit the crackdown of government cabinet in 2008 that led to almost two decades of pervasive political instability using the unique case of Slovenia and estimate the average treatment effect of political instability and the missing counterfactual scenario for the period 1996–2020. Based on large-scale Bayesian analysis with Metropolis–Hastings algorithm, we extract the residual component of institutional quality from the variation in predetermined unobserved characteristics. Across more than 1.5 million sequenced random samples, we construct novel time-varying estimates of institutional quality at the local and regional level. Our difference-in-differences and synthetic control estimates emphasize a rampant deterioration of institutional quality in response to political instability with evidence of weakened rule of law, less effective public sector, decreased political accountability, and more widespread prevalence of power abuses. The estimated negative effects of political instability are robust to a variety of placebo checks across more than 12 billion placebo averages for institutional quality outcome variable using random sampling method of treatment permutation.

Analisis Aktor Non Negara dan Ketahanan Psikologi: Studi Kasus Kekerasan Berbasis Gender Online (KBGO)

ABSTRACT The research was conducted with the aim of knowing: (1) the strategies implemented by NGOs, especially SAFEnet and INFID in the process of ratifying the TPKS Bill, and (2) explaining the psychological impact of KBGO victims and the role of the family in handling KBGO. The method used is qualitative research through interviews with representatives from SAFEnet and INFID, as well as conducting literature reviews obtained from online mass media, journal articles, books and scientific reports. Afterwards, the data collection method used triangulation using the theory of the Transnational Advocacy Network (TAN) and the theory of psychological resilience. The results showed that the TAN concepts such as information politics, symbolic politics, influence politics, and political accountability, SAFEnet and INFID together with networks both nationally and internationally were able to encourage the ratification of the TPKS Bill to become the TPKS Law in advocating legal protection for victims of sexual violence, especially in digital (online) domain. The impact experienced by victims of KBGO can be minimized, reduced or prevented through family support in educating, building communication, protecting to increase psychological resilience

Interrogating the links between dynasties and development in the Philippines

This article nuances the poverty-inducing effect of political dynasties. We argue that local dynasties in the Philippines can pursue different development trajectories based on their ownership of local businesses and their province's initial state capacity. Adapting a framework developed by Bourguignon and Verdier, we develop a typology of political dynasties that acknowledges heterogeneity in their motivations as well as in the political opportunity structures that they work in. This outlines a theory of change that fosters the necessary conditions for political and economic competition over time, even in areas ruled by political dynasties. While the focus is on the Philippines, research on the nexus between political and economic competition provides insight into issues of political dynasties, competition policy, governance, and accountability faced by a broader set of countries.

Voting and protest tendencies associated with changes in service delivery

ABSTRACT Existing literature highlights the complexities of the relationship between voting, protest action and service delivery within Southern African democracies. We explore the relationship between these variables for South Africa by generating a new dataset from various sources. Although this relationship has been explored before, the existing evidence is mixed. The results from this study therefore bring a fresh perspective, especially at a time during which the political power of the incumbent African National Congress has been declining. We find that improvements in service delivery are not significantly associated with an increase in votes for the incumbent party, indicating that accountability is not the main motivation for South Africans’ voting decisions. However, we find a statistically significant negative correlation between protest action and service delivery, providing evidence of the increasing importance of protest action as a form of political accountability in South Africa.

An assessment of the Impact of Good Governance on Health Outcome among Selected African Countries

Good governance is an essential component that drives better health outcome and education output required as a catalyst that will stimulate economic growth, and this constitutes a vital social objective as a result of good level of human capital development. The study evaluated the impact of good governance on health outcome among selected African countries using panel data from 2000 to 2020. The Panel unit root tests indicated that real gross domestic product, health outcome, and indicators of good governance are stationary at level while health expenditure and foreign aid are stationary at first difference. The Generalized Method of Moment (GMM) results show that indicators of good governance have positive and statistically significant effects on health outcome in the selected African Countries. Real gross domestic product has a positive and a statistically significant effect on health outcome in the selected African Countries Life expectancy has a positive and statistically significant effect on health outcome in the selected African Countries. Health expenditure has a positive and statistically significant effect on health outcome in the selected countries. Foreign aid has a positive and statistically significant effect on health outcome in the selected African Countries. The study recommends that African Countries should ensure that indicators of good governance such as political stability, accountability and voice, and control of corruption are moving smoothly without any interruption, by so doing economic growth of African countries will increases.

Financial markets regulation: political accountability challenged

PurposeThis paper aims to conceptualize and empirically illustrate the challenges that financial market regulation presents to politicians and the organization tasked with specifying regulations and supervising their implementation in the interest of users and consumers of financial instruments. It analyses the problem from the viewpoint of the governor's dilemma and the control/competence conflict, the linked problem of the rent-seeking of agents/intermediators and consumers of financial instruments. Political accountability problems are enhanced by the materiality of the technologies used, i.e. algo trading.Design/methodology/approachThe paper theoretically conceptualizes and empirically illustrates the argument.FindingsThe paper finds that regulators of digitalized financial markets are faced with considerable problems and depend on private agents when regulating financial transactions. However, the new technological instruments also offer new possibilities for securing compliance.Research limitations/implicationsFurther research should focus more in-depth on the cooperation between public and private actors in the specification and implementation of regulatory details. It should further investigate the conditions which allow regulators to use RegTech in the surveillance of financial firms.Practical implicationsSince financial market transactions are opaque for most users, the creation of more transparency is crucial to hold regulators accountable in their activity of surveillance of financial firms. New algorithm-based technologies may lend important support in doing so.Originality/valueBy linking the different analytical perspectives, i.e. the governor's dilemma vis-à-vis the intermediator or agent and the possible rent-seeking of intermediators, under the condition of a highly developed technology of financial transactions as well as the market structure, the paper offers new insights into the limits as well as new opportunities of regulating financial markets allowing for political accountability of regulators and financial firms.

Political Corruption and Accounting Conservatism

We investigate how local political corruption shapes corporate financial reporting conservatism. Using a large sample of U.S. public firms, we find that firms located in areas with higher levels of political corruption tend to adopt greater accounting conservatism. We also find that firms in more corrupt areas bear greater political expropriation costs. Further analysis reveals that the positive effect of corruption on conservatism is stronger for firms with less bargaining power against corrupt officials, firms with lower public visibility, and firms with weaker dependence on the government for sales. Overall, our findings support the expropriation hypothesis that corrupt officials have incentives to expropriate resources from local firms, which induces them to adopt more conservative reporting strategies to shield their assets.

ECB accountability under the SSM: New dimensions of political and administrative accountability with particular focus on climate risks

The Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) is a relatively recent and remarkable piece of institutional architecture at the core of the Banking Union. The vast powers conferred on the ECB under the SSM, the complexity of coordination and the sensitive nature of some decisions allocated to the EU level make accountability a key requisite for the system’s success. Some of the provisions applicable provide a solid foundation for a system of strong accountability. Recently, the need to offer a credible response to climate change risks have added additional challenges to ECB accountability under the SSM. Accordingly, there is room to improve the system to effectively counterbalance the powers given to the SSM to increase their accountability at the European level without undermining their independence and within the boundaries of the current legal framework.

The Impact of Digital Media on Urban Discourse

The media plays a crucial role in disseminating public information. This holds particular significance in urban contexts where it is vital for citizens to be informed about local issues as an integral element of urban discourse in the public sphere. With the growth of digital media, concerns about the quality of media content are increasing. This study investigates media perspectives on the quality of urban discourse, drawing on interviews with 51 journalists across four countries (Ireland, Netherlands, Poland and the United Kingdom). The findings underscore the immense potential of local journalism in shaping interactions between local government and citizens. While digital media has led to an explosion of content availability, it also poses challenges in providing reliable information to citizens. The study reviews these challenges and proposes solutions to enhance the quality of urban discourse.

Against the Spirit of the Age: The Rationale of Relational Contracts

Abstract In his long-awaited treatise on the relational theory of contracting, David Campbell provides a rigorous, systematic and consistently lucid account of mutual recognition as the basis of all volitional obligations. Fiercely negotiated economic transactions find their social expression in legally enforceable agreements that are to be followed scrupulously to the letter both by the parties and by the courts. This is because, in his view, mutual recognition, the co-operative economic enterprise, is memorialised in the legal instrument. Using the example of the emergent doctrine of good faith, this article argues that while such literalism proffers an admirably bright line for enforcement of agreements, it reduces the import and value of the relational theory of contract as an ethical and political accounting of market transactions. Literalism here is problematic not simply because of the inherent historicity and social diversity of language, but because in concepts such as good faith or reasonable interpretation, the purpose of the inscribed transaction has to be evaluated not only in terms of the plurality of the contract’s clauses, but also with a view to the overall shared intent of the exchange. For the relational theory of contract to have the impact that it merits, it needs to strengthen its account of how mutual recognition and the ethical and political dimensions of relationship best gain expression in the good-faith interpretation of the proximities manifest in agreement.

Income Taxes and Political Accountability

The idea that paying taxes makes politicians more accountable to citizens has long drawn the attention of scholars. This article contributes to the understanding of this relationship from a novel perspective: that it is elections rather than negotiations between politicians and elites—as most of the previous literature has assumed—that serve as the primary mechanism by which citizens discipline politicians. I build a voting agency model that considers two effects of income taxes on voters’ decisions: how changes in voters’ disposable income affect their political demands and how increments in tax revenues affect voters’ beliefs about the ability of institutions to affect incumbents’ decisions. I find that increments in taxes always strengthen voters’ political demands. Nevertheless, it would not necessarily prove useful for disciplining incumbents—in terms of a higher expected provision of public goods and lower captured rents. Gains in political accountability, in turn, positively affect the equilibrium income tax rate.

Democratic politics and hope: An Arendtian perspective

Narratives of hope are omnipresent in democratic life, but what can they tell us about the structure and orientation of politics? While common, they are often reduced to an all-compassing understanding that overlooks hope's various forms and implications. Democratic theory, however, lacks the theoretical language to attend to these distinctions. The aim of this essay is thus to define a collective and political account of hope and recover the normative basis of a democratic theory of hope. Drawing on the literature on hope and juxtaposing it with extracts from Harvey Milk's ‘The Hope Speech,’ I first distinguish its collective experience before turning to Hannah Arendt. While Arendt rejects a politics of hope that turns away from the world, exploring how she thinks with and against hope provides a theoretically fruitful approach that elevates the in-betweenness of its worldly expression. From that standpoint, I relate the work and experience of hoping with others to her notions of natality, action and promises. These three conceptual touchstones provide the normative basis of a democratic theory of hope and help situate a collective sense of possibility inherent in democratic politics.

The Legitimacy Of The Oecd’S Work On Pillar Two: An Analysis Of The Overconfidence In A ‘Devilish Logic

The objective of this contribution is to analyse the legitimacy of the OECD’s work on Pillar Two. The starting point is that the effectiveness of the new global minimum tax is clearly based on its so-called ‘devilish logic’. As such the project relies heavily on expert knowledge that is supposed to guarantee output legitimacy. At the same time, the consensus reached in the Inclusive Framework (IF) is supposed to bless the global minimum tax with a form of input legitimacy. Nevertheless, the contribution comes to the conclusion that the legitimacy of the OECD’s work on Pillar Two is falling short. The central point is that the governance process of the OECD should meet burdensome standards of ‘good’ governance including accountability (i.e., throughput legitimacy). Unfortunately, the political accountability and the technical accountability of the work on Pillar Two were clearly insufficient. The OECD, and the Centre for Tax Policy and Administration (CTPA) in particular, was not appropriately operating ‘in the shadow of politics’ and the ingenious solutions of the global minimum tax were not sufficiently scrutinized by independent technical experts. As a result of these shortcomings, the legitimacy of the work on Pillar Two eventually relied too strongly on expert knowledge (the ‘devilish logic’) and therefore on output legitimacy only. This conclusion illustrates once more the urgent need to rethink the legitimacy of international tax governance in general and the role of the OECD in particular. Pillar Two, global minimum tax, legitimacy, expert knowledge, accountability, OECD, international tax governance, United Nations

The History Of Gold Money, Money And Its Relevancy

This purpose of this research was to analyse the history of gold money, money and its relevancy. The present study, casts light, through investigating the current usage of Gold Dinar, chronological history of money and existing usage of Gold as a currency throughout the ages from ancient times to the present day. This research, aims to examine interest in using the Gold Dinar as well as emphasizes its advantages and disadvantages. To achieve the objectives of this research, qualitative research methods including content analysis and interviews were used. The study utilized personal interviews with scholars, and studying books, journals, magazines, as well as the empirical analysis from the available evidence such as documents published by the IMF and UN. The study found the problem exists because the manipulation of paper money or in economic term called inflation. Inflation destroys prosperity. Thus, the soundness of money should be maintained domestically and internationally through a system of fixed exchange rates based on universal gold convertibility. Indeed, stability in the value of money is very important in socio economic. It is a fundamental call for a new approach to financial governance based on balanced budgets, fiscal transparency, and political accountability. Gold, in that sense, is the defense for preserving national financial independence.

Evidence-neglect: addressing a barrier to UK health and climate policy ambitions

Abstract Scientific evidence is just one of many sources of information for policymakers. Neglecting this evidence is, however, an important feature of unsuccessful policy-making. Recent UK governments’ ambitions to improve the nation’s health and tackle climate change are—to varying degrees—off course. These include halving childhood obesity by 2030 and achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Evidence on the interventions most likely to achieve these is well summarised but largely neglected in the policies supporting these ambitions. Two sets of factors contribute to this neglect: first, incentive structures for politicians that favour setting ambitious policy goals while disfavouring the effective policies needed to achieve them; second, political ideologies and interests that conflict with effective policies. Two changes could mitigate these factors: first, engaging citizens more in policy-making so that their interests dominate; second, increasing the accountability of politicians through legally binding systems for all stages of policy-making.

Reframing Refugee Characters

By allowing viewers to interact with stories, interactive films have revolutionized how viewers engage with social issues and events. The emergence of immersive technologies and interactive storytelling has transformed traditional storytelling forms and methods. These technological advances have rendered interactive storytelling more complex by challenging users to reexamine understandings of the mediated world. Consequently, basic media literacy skills are necessary to benefit from these projects dealing with refugees stories.
 Although interactive storytelling creates new forms of social engagement, the question about which social issues or subjects are most effectively addressed through interactive narratives remains. How do refugee stories and discourses contribute to interactive engagement? This essay analyzes a series of interactive projects focusing on refugees' storytelling, politics, and aesthetics in order to examine their socio-political engagement and their unique attributes. Refugee stories hold a strong emotional appeal, positioning them as ideal for interactive narratives. How do unique refugee experiences of displacement and disarray engage creators and viewers/users/players?
 This essay argues that refugee storytelling interactivity contributes significantly to viewers' engagement with social issues and characters. While creating empathy and responsibility, these projects allow users to connect with people far removed from their own lived experiences. Characters with well-known and reliable stories make users feel closer in the position of moral concern to their situation and can instigate political accountability for their future. In interactive narratives, refugee characters redefine agency and storytelling. They offer the ability to recreate history, engender a change in the world, or revise a topic with a sense of justice toward dependable and trustworthy characters.

Taking Account

Taking Account

Institutional factors in the sharing economy formation in developed and developing countries

Subject. The article examines institutional aspects of the sharing economy development as a new business model, which has spread in conditions of accelerating socio-economic processes due to the introduction of digital technologies, and the transformations of behavior patterns of economic agents, caused by both technological and value changes. Objectives. The aim is to determine the influence of factors characterizing the institutional environment of developed and developing countries, on the sharing economy formation. Methods. The study rests on general scientific and special research methods, including statistical methods, grouping, regression analysis based on verification of relevant tests, etc. Results. The paper substantiated positive influence of regulatory factors (political stability, voting rights, and accountability) on the sharing economy development. It demonstrated that the sharing economy develops more efficiently in conditions of freedom (freedom of doing business, freedom of investment), revealed that increased tax burden has a positive effect on the development of the business model under consideration only in the least developed countries. The analysis of informal institutions confirmed negative effect of a high level of power distance on the sharing economy development. The paper also underpinned positive influence of social development factors related to the development of human capital. Conclusions. The significance of our findings is in the identification of factors that are most important for sharing economy growth in various countries, given their level of socio-economic development. The practical relevance of the study lies in the substantiation of importance of inclusive institutional environment for sharing economy growth.