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

社会科学家认为，治理能力是解释暴力、民主和财富的关键组成部分。然而，是什么原因导致了治理能力的差异？虽然学者们对各国能力差异的原因作出了解释，但学者们忽视了这样一个事实，即在分权治理时代，发展中国家的治理能力往往在国家内部而不是在国家之间表现出巨大差异。特别是，传统智慧认为，政府在中心地区是有效的，但在边缘地区则不那么有效。这个项目说明了这个假设的谬误。在发展中国家，政府并非在首都强而在其他地方弱，因为在全国各地，在次国家一级，都可以存在一些有效的政府。为什么？为什么？本项目通过审查加纳国内国家以下各级治理能力的差异来调查这一问题。加纳提供了一个很好的案例研究，因为它是非洲最有效的国家之一，但地方能力参差不齐。这使得执政能力的政治问题更加令人困惑。该项目开发了一种理论，该理论将政治机构的有效性建立在这些机构的合法性之上。它具体地隔离了边界在构建特定地区的合法性方面所发挥的作用，这导致行为者对其地方政府的看法和反应方式发生变化。该项目通过一种混合方法来测试其理论，该方法结合了跨地区的统计分析，四个案例研究，定性访谈和定量调查方法。该项目增进了对发展中国家治理能力的了解，将重点从国家间比较转向国家内部比较。这种重新确定重点的做法是十分恰当的，因为权力下放已将许多治理领域向下转移到地方当局，进一步突出了地方机构质量的差异。了解地方当局的效率如何以及为什么会有所不同，是政治学家、社会学家和经济学家感兴趣的问题。该项目通过建立第一个关于一个国家内部政治边界与其传统当局边界相匹配的数据库，为发展研究和政治学作出贡献。它还创新性地提供了第一份关于非洲国家治理能力系统性差异的研究报告。该项目还具有更广泛的影响。它揭示了发展中国家政府绩效和公共产品提供方面的不均衡结果，同时审查了地方政治机构在当地社会背景下的运作。

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.