Ideological Coalitions and the International Promotion of Social Accountability: The Philippines and Cambodia Compared
Rodan, G. Hughes, Caroline
Rodan, G.
Hughes, Caroline
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2012
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Abstract
International aid agencies are increasingly placing social accountability at the heart of their governance
reform programs, involving a range of social activist mechanisms through which officials are rendered answerable
to the public. Crucially, aid agencies are not just promoting these mechanisms in emerging democracies,
but now also in authoritarian societies. What then are the likely political regime effects of these mechanisms?
We approach this by examining who supports social accountability, why, and the implications for political
authority. Focusing on the Philippines and Cambodia cases, it is argued that, to differing degrees, social
accountability mechanisms have been subordinated to liberal and ⁄ or moral ideologies favoring existing power
hierarchies. These ideologies often privilege nonconfrontational state–society partnerships, drawing activists
into technical and administrative processes limiting reform possibilities by marginalizing, or substituting for,
independent political action pivotal to the democratic political authority of citizens.
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Rodan G and Hughes C (2012) Ideological Coalitions and the International Promotion of Social Accountability: The Philippines and Cambodia Compared. International Studies Quarterly. 56(2): 367-380.
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