LIST OF PANELS

This panel aims to understand the effects of social accountability initiatives (SAIs) in governance in different political regimes. Social accountability refers to initiatives created by citizens to monitor public servants and control political power (Grandvoinnet et al., 2015; Igalla et al., 2019; Malena et al., 2004; Smulovitz & Peruzzotti, 2000). They aim to expose and report cases of governmental wrongdoing and activate horizontal agencies through citizen mobilization (Peruzzotti & Smulovitz, 2006). SAIs could be demanded by citizens or offered by governments. On the demand side, the last years have been characterized by increased citizen initiatives to improve governance, such as citizen observatories and overseeing institutions. On the supply side, governments are more open to creating spaces for fostering citizen participation, like referendums and participatory budgets.

In strong democratic contexts, these initiatives have been widely implemented, and research has shown none or little effect in strengthening governance (Boräng & Grimes, 2021; Larsson & Grimes, 2022). In weak democratic contexts, however, the evidence is less convincing. First, there is an explosion of initiatives from the supply side that lack effectiveness. Second, there are few initiatives from the demand side, and research shows mixed results (Grandvoinnet et al., 2015; Malena et al., 2004). In this context, understanding the effect of different types of SAIs in different political regimens is still an unexplored field.

The panel seeks to answer questions like What is the influence of social accountability on governance in different contexts and regimes? What is the extent of the effectiveness of social accountability? And how can we explain the paradox between fostering participation policies and opening more channels of social accountability and its limited effects on governance? We start from the hypothesis that a government-driven design of social accountability initiatives may not contain the necessary mechanisms to make an effective counterweight to political power. Participation may also be disincentive since citizens have limited resources to implement social accountability. It is also worth considering the possibility that social accountability may have different effects depending on the regime or region in which it is implemented.

The panel discusses the effects of social accountability initiatives on governance and democracy in different political regimens. It includes conceptual and empirical questions about social accountability and citizen participation. In addition, through the discussion, we will obtain valuable policy insights for improving the offer of social participation tools. It is also expected that the discussion will contribute to building bridges between findings and public policy decision-making. This implies the incorporation of experiences not only from the public sector, as a result of the supply of participation channels from governments, but also from organized civil society and non-governmental organizations.

It is assumed that involvement in social accountability does not depend merely on governments as providers of participation channels, but necessarily incorporates practice from the social sector. In this sense, the panel is expected to attract researchers from different disciplinary fields, including young scholars (graduated students and postdocs), practitioners and senior researchers working on citizen participation and social accountability using exploratory, subnational, national and cross-national studies data. We value both empirical analyses applying different methodological approaches to studying citizens’ motivations and social accountability success, and reflections on conceptual issues, research design and methods.

Proposals may come from multiple methodological approaches (qualitative, quantitative or mixed), but with a solid basis in the approach to the subject and to each particular case. The co-chairs wish to attract four types of papers: (1) scoping/systematic reviews of the literature on social accountability from multiple conceptual and theoretical angles; (2) methodological papers reflecting on different instruments and data collection techniques; (3) research papers using innovative analytical tools to interpret empirical data from both observational and experimental datasets and official datasets; and qualitative data that includes interviews, focus groups, among others; 4) critical and theoretical papers about the policy relevance and degree of innovation brought forth by different citizens initiatives. This panel is open for onsite and online presentations, striving for gender parity and regional diversity in its composition.