Information, Accountability, and Cumulative Learning PDF Download

Author: Thad Dunning
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108422284
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 505

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Book Description
Examines a set of voter information campaigns worldwide to assess their effectiveness, and develops a new social science research model aimed at cumulative learning. It will appeal to academics and practitioners looking for innovative ways to conduct social science research that is rigorous, policy-relevant, and cumulative.

Author: Thad Dunning
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108395074
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 505

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Book Description
Throughout the world, voters lack access to information about politicians, government performance, and public services. Efforts to remedy these informational deficits are numerous. Yet do informational campaigns influence voter behavior and increase democratic accountability? Through the first project of the Metaketa Initiative, sponsored by the Evidence in Governance and Politics (EGAP) research network, this book aims to address this substantive question and at the same time introduce a new model for cumulative learning that increases coordination among otherwise independent researcher teams. It presents the overall results (using meta-analysis) from six independently conducted but coordinated field experimental studies, the results from each individual study, and the findings from a related evaluation of whether practitioners utilize this information as expected. It also discusses lessons learned from EGAP's efforts to coordinate field experiments, increase replication of theoretically important studies across contexts, and increase the external validity of field experimental research.

Author: Andreas Bågenholm
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191899003
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 881

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Book Description
Recent research demonstrates that the quality of public institutions is crucial for a number of important environmental, social, economic, and political outcomes, and thereby human well-being. The Quality of Government (QoG) approach directs attention to issues such as impartiality in the exercise of public power, professionalism in public service delivery, effective measures against corruption, and meritocracy instead of patronage and nepotism. This Handbook offers a comprehensive, state-of-the-art overview of this rapidly expanding research field and also identifies viable avenues for future research. The initial chapters focus on theoretical approaches and debates, and the central question of how QoG can be measured. A second set of chapters examines the wealth of empirical research on how QoG relates to democratization, social trust and cohesion, ethnic diversity, happiness and human wellbeing, democratic accountability, economic growth and inequality, political legitimacy, environmental sustainability, gender equality, and the outbreak of civil conflicts. The remaining chapters turn to the perennial issue of which contextual factors and policy approaches—national, local, and international—have proven successful (and not so successful) for increasing QoG. The Quality of Government approach both challenges and complements important strands of inquiry in the social sciences. For research about democratization, QoG adds the importance of taking state capacity into account. For economics, the QoG approach shows that in order to produce economic prosperity, markets need to be embedded in institutions with a certain set of qualities. For development studies, QoG emphasizes that issues relating to corruption are integral to understanding development writ large.

Author: Guillaume Fontaine
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031380851
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 302

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Book Description
This book examines anti-corruption policies in Latin America. It compares best practices in public procurement and state budgets in order to provide new insights into policy design for governments, civil society organisations and international organisations engaged in the fight against corruption. The book assesses how a paradigm shift toward transparency in global governance has led to major changes in public policies in the region since the late 1990s. Using Uruguay and Chile as case studies, it then demonstrates the causal mechanisms linking transparency institutionalisation to corruption control. The book also offers recommendations for research and practice about the importance of coherent public accountability systems, that combine citizen oversight over government with government responsibility towards non-state actors. It will appeal to scholars and students of public policy, public administration and governance in Latin America, as well as those interested in political corruption.

Author: Lucy E. S. Martin
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197672639
Category : Finance, Public
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
Across the developing world, governments still lack the fiscal capacity to fund critical public goods, alleviate poverty, and invest in economic development. Yet, we know little about how to effectively build strong states in these settings. This book develops and tests a new theory to explain why fiscal capacity in African states is low. Drawing on work in psychology and behavioral economics, this book argues that taxation leads citizens to demand more from leaders as they seek to recover lost income from taxation. It then argues that governments' willingness to tax will depend on the extent to which they can satisfy citizens' demands while maintaining rent extraction. Rent-seeking leaders of low-capacity states will strategically underinvest in fiscal capacity in order to avoid the higher demands they face under taxation. Contrary to many existing theories, Martin shows that this can actually lead to lower taxation in democracies compared to autocracies, as citizen accountability demands pose a bigger threat to rulers. The book uses multiple empirical approaches to test the theory. Laboratory experiments in Uganda and Ghana, combined with Afrobarometer data, demonstrate that taxation increases citizens' demands on leaders. Global cross-national panel data show that democracy can actually lead to lower taxation in low-capacity states. When taxation is sustainable, however, it is associated with better governance. Case studies in Uganda, based on the author's own fieldwork and original survey data, provide additional support for the theory. These findings provide new framework for understanding the challenges to building state capacity, especially fiscal capacity, in modern developing countries.

Author: Torben Iversen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1009240404
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
A core principle of the welfare state is that everyone pays taxes or contributions in exchange for universal insurance against social risks such as sickness, old age, unemployment, and plain bad luck. This solidarity principle assumes that everyone is a member of a single national insurance pool, and it is commonly explained by poor and asymmetric information, which undermines markets and creates the perception that we are all in the same boat. Living in the midst of an information revolution, this is no longer a satisfactory approach. This book explores, theoretically and empirically, the consequences of 'big data' for the politics of social protection. Torben Iversen and Philipp Rehm argue that more and better data polarize preferences over public insurance and often segment social insurance into smaller, more homogenous, and less redistributive pools, using cases studies of health and unemployment insurance and statistical analyses of life insurance, credit markets, and public opinion.

Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309172861
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 136

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Book Description
State education departments and school districts face an important challenge in implementing a new law that requires disadvantaged students to be held to the same standards as other students. The new requirements come from provisions of the 1994 reauthorization of Title I, the largest federal effort in precollegiate education, which provides aid to "level the field" for disadvantaged students. Testing, Teaching, and Learning is written to help states and school districts comply with the new law, offering guidance for designing and implementing assessment and accountability systems. This book examines standards-based education reform and reviews the research on student assessment, focusing on the needs of disadvantaged students covered by Title I. With examples of states and districts that have track records in new systems, the committee develops a practical "decision framework" for education officials. The book explores how best to design assessment and accountability systems that support high levels of student learning and to work toward continuous improvement. Testing, Teaching, and Learning will be an important tool for all involved in educating disadvantaged studentsâ€"state and local administrators and classroom teachers.

Author: James N. Druckman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108997988
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
Experiments are a central methodology in the social sciences. Scholars from every discipline regularly turn to experiments. Practitioners rely on experimental evidence in evaluating social programs, policies, and institutions. This book is about how to “think” about experiments. It argues that designing a good experiment is a slow moving process (given the host of considerations) which is counter to the current fast moving temptations available in the social sciences. The book includes discussion of the place of experiments in the social science process, the assumptions underlying different types of experiments, the validity of experiments, the application of different designs, how to arrive at experimental questions, the role of replications in experimental research, and the steps involved in designing and conducting “good” experiments. The goal is to ensure social science research remains driven by important substantive questions and fully exploits the potential of experiments in a thoughtful manner.

Author: Joseph Pozsgai-Alvarez
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000487865
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
This book investigates the history, development, and current state of anti-corruption agencies in Latin America. In recent decades, specialized anti-corruption agencies have sprung up as countries seek to respond to corruption and to counter administrative and political challenges. However, the characteristics, resources, power, and performance of these agencies reflect the political and economic environment in which they operate. This book draws on a range of case studies from across Latin America, considering both national anti-corruption bodies and agencies created and administered by, or in close coordination with, international organizations. Together, these stories demonstrate the importance of the political will of reformers, the private interests of key actors, the organizational space of other agencies, the position of advocacy groups, and the level of support from the public at large. This book will be a key resource for researchers across political science, corruption studies, development, and Latin American Studies. It will also be a valuable guide for policy makers and professionals in NGOs and international organizations working on anti-corruption advocacy and policy advice.

Author: James N. Druckman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108478506
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 671

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Book Description
Novel collection of essays addressing contemporary trends in political science, covering a broad array of methodological and substantive topics.