Suchergebnisse

This article argues that social accountability can be an important mechanism for ensuring that the poor get better services. Earlier service delivery reforms based on New Public Management focussed on getting the 'incentives right' within the public sector. More recently there has been a shift to the creation of direct accountability channels that empower citizens. To gauge the potential of social accountability however, we need to understand when collective actors engage in social accountability demands and why. The polity approach, which emphasises the mutually constitutive nature of states and societies over time, is a useful way of tracing the emergence of social accountability and its subsequent impact. (IDS Bull/GIGA)

This paper examines the role of courts in promoting fulfillment of the right to education in developing country democracies, focusing on India and Indonesia—two countries that have experienced increased education rights litigation in recent years. The paper argues that this litigation has been part of broader struggles over education policy, inequality, and the capture of educational institutions by political and bureaucratic forces; and that the extent to which litigation has been used and led to policy changes has depended significantly on the nature of, and access to, the court system; the presence of support structures for legal mobilization; the ideology of the courts and judges; and the roles and willingness of litigants to pursue redress. Broadly, litigation has served the interests of the poor and marginalized, although gains have largely come through better access to education, while issues of improving quality have been less prominent.