Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: The Politics of Governing Capacity

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Social scientists have identified governing capacity as a key component of explanations about violence, democracy, and wealth. What accounts for variations in governing capacity, however? Although scholars have developed explanations for why capacity varies across countries, scholars have neglected the fact that, in an era of decentralized governance, developing countries often display substantial variation in the capacity to govern not across countries but within countries. In particular, conventional wisdom holds that governments are effective in the center but less so in the periphery. This project illustrates the fallacy of that assumption. In the developing world, governments are not strong in the capital and weak elsewhere, for pockets of effective government can exist throughout the country, at sub-national levels. Why? This project investigates that question by examining sub-national variation in governing capacity within Ghana. Ghana offers an excellent case study because it is one of the most effective states in Africa and yet exhibits uneven sub-national capacity. This makes the question of the politics of governing capacity all the more puzzling. This project develops a theory that grounds the effectiveness of political institutions in the legitimacy of those institutions. It specifically isolates the role that boundaries play in structuring the legitimacy of a given district, which produces variation in the way that actors perceive and react to their local governments. The project tests its theory through a mixed methods approach that combines cross-district statistical analysis, four case studies, qualitative interviewing, and quantitative survey methods. This project advances the understanding of governing capacity in developing countries, shifting the focus from comparisons across countries to comparisons within them. This refocus is most appropriate, for decentralization has shifted many realms of governance downward to local authorities, further accentuating variation in the quality of local institutions. Understanding how and why local authorities vary in their effectiveness is of interest to political scientists, sociologists, and economists. This project contributes to development studies and political science by constructing the first database on the match between a country's internal political boundaries and the boundaries of its traditional authorities. It also innovates by offering the first study of systematic variation in governing capacity within an African country. The project has broader implications as well. It sheds light on uneven outcomes in government performance and the delivery of public goods within developing countries at the same time that it examines the operation of local political institutions in their local social context.