Navigating between the state and the streets: When and why social accountability matters for executive public sector organisations

Abstract

For public sector organisations, accountability has become a navigation act. They are not only accountable to ministries and the government (“the state”), but also have to deal with accountability demands from societal stakeholders (“the streets”). Various politicians and academics have argued in favour of social accountability: forms of accountability directed to citizens, clients, users, and other stakeholders. But when and why does social accountability matter in executive governance? This dissertation sketches an empirically fine-grained picture of the many faces of social accountability. It is based on multi-methodological research, including surveys, experiments, focus groups, and qualitative interviews. Although social accountability is not as prominent as political accountability, public sector organisations consider social accountability to be important. This is particularly the case when they are confronted with social media pressures. The dissertation further shows that social accountability is a limited control instrument. Rather, social accountability arrangements, such as client councils and stakeholder panels, often serve practical and strategic ends for public sector organisations. Particularly, social accountability can strengthen citizens' perceptions of the legitimacy of organisational decisions. This dissertation calls for a nuanced understanding of the actual impact of social accountability. While accountability to the state is necessary for political and democratic control, accountability to the streets is most relevant for effective public policy implementation and the reputation and legitimacy of public sector organisations.