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

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。这个项目的目的是探索公众对民选官员的需求和他们之间的联系。提供高效、负责任的政府。特别地，它考察了三种不同的动员基层压力的机制，并通过在印度尼西亚的实地实验检验了每种机制的解释力。第一种是权利机制，即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，他们将问责政客。在许多新兴民主国家，甚至连这一基本知识都是脆弱的。第二种是纳税人机制，即公民只有在向政府缴纳财政捐款时才会采取行动。由于许多发展中国家政府只收取非正式的费用、税收和贿赂，因此挑战在于鼓励公民更多地将自己视为政府的债权人而不是债务人。第三种机制以能力为中心，强调通过提高公民的能力来加强审查能力而不是加强动机的重要性。熟练掌握基本预算和公共财政问题。为了检验哪一种机制最具解释力，研究人员将与印度尼西亚的一个倡导组织PATTIRO合作，开展一项信息宣传活动，其内容明显反映了权利、纳税人和能力机制。将随机选择个人和村庄接收信息。与临床药物试验类似，随机选择创建一个“治疗”组和一个“控制”组，它们在一开始的所有关键特征都相同。在活动之后，两组之间的任何结果差异都可以完全归因于活动本身的影响。每种机制对个人对问责态度和行为的影响将通过对治疗组和对照组中抽样的1600人进行前后调查来衡量。通过确定赋权的个人层面决定因素，本研究将确定发展中国家基层对公共产品和更好的政府的压力的起源。这个项目不仅应该引起研究人员的兴趣，这些研究人员希望了解公民何时对民选官员负责，而且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.