Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: When Do Citizens Grasp the Purse Strings? Budget Transparency and Political Engagement in Indonesia

这个奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案(公法111-5)资助的。这个项目的目标是探索公众对官员的需求和民选官员之间的联系。提供高效、反应灵敏的政府。特别是，它考察了三种不同的机制，以动员基层对良好政府的压力，并通过在印度尼西亚的实地试验测试了每种机制的解释力。首先是一种权利机制，该机制声称，当公民清楚地了解自己有权获得政府提供的商品和服务时，他们将追究政客的责任。在许多新的民主政体中，即使是这种基本知识也是脆弱的。第二个是纳税人机制，这意味着公民只有在向政府做出财政贡献时才会采取行动。由于许多发展中国家的政府只收取非正式的费用、税收和贿赂，因此面临的挑战是鼓励公民更多地将自己视为政府的债权人，而不是债务人。第三个机制以能力为中心，强调的不是加强动机，而是通过提高公民的审查能力？精通基本预算和公共财政问题。为了测试哪种机制最具解释力，研究人员将与印尼倡导组织PATTIRO合作，开展一项宣传活动，内容明确反映权利、纳税人和能力机制。个人和村庄将被随机挑选来接收信息。与临床药物试验类似，随机选择从一开始就产生了一个在所有关键特征上都相同的“治疗”组和一个“对照”组。在这场运动之后，两个群体在结果上的任何差异都可以完全归因于运动本身的影响。每种机制对个人对问责的态度和行为的影响将通过对来自治疗组和对照组的1600名个人的前后调查来衡量。通过确定赋权的个人层面决定因素，这项研究将定位发展中国家要求公共产品和更好政府的基层压力的来源。这一项目不仅应该引起研究人员的兴趣，他们希望了解公民何时追究民选官员的责任，也应该引起许多发展组织的兴趣，这些组织对赋予边缘化和政治上处于不利地位的人权力的最有效战略感兴趣。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).The goal of this project is to explore the link between public demand for and elected officials? supply of efficient, responsive government. In particular, it examines three distinct mechanisms for mobilizing grassroots pressure for good government, and tests the explanatory power of each mechanism through a field experiment in Indonesia. The first is a rights mechanism, which claims citizens will hold politicians accountable when they have a clear understanding of their entitlement to government-provided goods and services. In many new democracies, even this basic knowledge is fragile. The second is a taxpayer mechanism, which suggests citizens will only take action when they make fiscal contributions to government. Since many developing country governments collect only informal fees, taxes and bribes, the challenge is to encourage citizens to see themselves more as creditors than debtors to government. The third mechanism centers on capacity and highlights the importance not of strengthening the motivation but rather the ability to scrutinize by enhancing citizens? proficiency in basic budgeting and public finance issues. To test which mechanism has the most explanatory power, the researcher will partner with PATTIRO, an Indonesian advocacy organization, to conduct an information campaign with content that distinctly reflects the rights, taxpayer and capacity mechanisms. Individuals and villages will be selected to receive the information randomly. Similar to a clinical drug trial, random selection creates a 'treatment' group and a 'control' group that are identical in all key characteristics at the outset. Any difference in outcomes across both groups following the campaign can then solely be attributed to the impact of the campaign itself. The impact of each mechanism on individual attitudes and behavior toward accountability will be measured using a before and after survey of 1600 individuals sampled from both treatment and control groups. By identifying the individual level determinants of empowerment, this study will locate the origins of grassroots pressure for public goods and better government in developing countries. This project should be of interest not only to researchers seeking to understand when citizens hold elected officials accountable but also to the numerous development organizations interested in the most effective strategies for empowering the marginalized and politically disadvantaged.