Public accountability is a critical component of democracy, but how do citizens hold officials accountable? For example, citizens may seek to dismiss (or vote against) an official who abuses his power, but will they be as willing to do so after hearing the justifications that politicians often make? Will their response be different if they share a political identity with the authority - party membership, race, or ethnicity? Which has the greatest impact? This study investigates the effect of an authority's political identity, performance, and persuasion on public accountability in South Africa. There is evidence that each of these factors affects how citizens view politicians and thus their willingness to hold them accountable. This study will extend that research by using a novel experimental design that can test not only how each factor operates individually, but also how they interact.
The intellectual merit of the study is connected to its design: assignment of participants to different "treatment" groups is random. Because assignment to the specific identity, performance, and persuasion of the authority is random, differences in how participants respond can be confidently attributed to the treatment. Participants will be recruited from public spaces near Johannesburg, South Africa. South Africa was chosen because the research questions are especially important for new democracies. In particular, the ruling African National Congress (ANC), which liberated South Africa from apartheid, has come under increasing scrutiny for abuses of power. And yet to date the ANC appears to have paid only a limited political price - in May 2014 the party won national elections with more than 60% of the vote for the fifth consecutive time since 1994. This study examines why this is the case. It may be because abuses are unimportant to voters relative to other ANC achievements. It may be because voters identify so strongly with the party that they are willing to condone abuses. Or, it may be because the ANC is still able to appeal to values of freedom and equality that they demonstrated in the liberation struggle.
The broader impacts are associated with the implications for development, democracy, and policy. The ANC delivered democracy to South Africa, but its dominance makes it hard for checks and balances to operate. This puts an added burden on the public to hold officials to account. The study provides insights into the conditions under which they are likely to bear that burden well. It also contributes to a broader theory and planned research agenda about the role of public accountability in institutional development of any democracy: the research is replicable in different national and cultural contexts. With a theory of public accountability built on sound micro-foundations, better strategies can be developed to strengthen it.
