Sanctions, Benefits, and Rights: Three Faces of Accountability
In what way are citizens able to affect their local public officials and how can their collective need be transformed into government action? 15 years ago a study in Mexico examined 30 randomly selected municipals and the findings were that the ability to demand good performance of local government lagged behind other forms of civil accountability.
In this paper the author returns to Mexico to try to answer in what way government accountability is expected to improve through decentralization and democratization. The research provides the reader with a simple way of understanding the mechanism of accountability, both in Mexico and in a global context.