Accountability and citizen’s organisation in a peasant and poverty context

: A critique of the empowerment approach

Abstract

Citizens’ organisation (both voluntary organisations and spontaneous community organising), while a necessary condition to foster accountability, is absent in a peasant and poverty context. The thesis problematises the theory and practice of fostering accountability in this context, using the case of Uganda.

We know from political philosophy that voluntary organisations have emerged from the context of the middle class, characterised by a political culture of liberal democratic values; the citizens’ capability for analysis (public intellectuals), which is attained through education; and economic prosperity (the market), which enables membership in organisations. Therefore, members in voluntary organisations provide analytic, research, and communication skills, and are socialised into a political culture of liberal democratic values. Similarly, spontaneous community organising requires organic organisers who are educated, with the capability to organise, mobilise, provide political learning, and raise community leaders to spearhead advocacy for the local communities. However, the structural conditions for the growth of associational life are absent in the developing countries. The peasant and poverty context is not a fertile ground for voluntary organisations and the cadre of community organisers and leaders is equally missing.

Therefore, the study questions the theorisation to foster both accountability and citizen’s organisation in the poverty and peasant context. The thesis identifies the following gaps in the theorisation: First of all, while it promotes non-membership organisations (the NGOs) to support communities to hold government to account, it also envisages that the NGO service delivery/community development projects would foster associational life. The study questions the extent that the project groups foster associational life and accountability. Secondly, the non-market concept of poverty by the NGOs, i.e. social service delivery/community development projects ignores a peasant context. In political philosophy, poverty is conceptualised in relation to the citizens’ position in the market economy, so that poverty and associationalism exit in tandem. By focusing on the social service delivery indicators, the theorisation ignores the significance of the systemic preconditions for associational life. The study questions the extent that the idea of poverty, in terms of social service delivery indicators addresses the peasant context, and how the liberal democratic values are learned in this context. Finally, while the theorisation promotes representative local government, it ignores the problem of unequal power caused by poverty. The thesis critiques the capability of the unorganised, poor and illiterate citizens to influence and hold their political representatives in local government accountable. The democratic theory of representation suggests that organised citizens check the power of the elected leaders. How then does the lack of citizens’ organisation hamper local government accountability?

The study findings on the NGO community development project groups, show that the groups disintegrate at the end of the project cycle, and are often mechanisms for clientelism by the state. The community project groups play no role in accountability. In addition, the NGO idea of supporting unorganised citizens to undertake accountability changes the meaning of political accountability, which presupposes the self-organisation of citizens to limit the state. Secondly, the empirical research identified that poverty targeting through social service delivery/community development projects does not respond to the challenges of a peasant context. The peasants’ priorities are distinct from those identified by the theorisation on poverty by the NGOs. For the peasants, the social service community projects are not only scanty, they do not respond to peasants’ core priority, which is to gain an income and integrate into the market. Thirdly, the findings show the absence of voluntary associations that would put pressure on the local government representatives. Therefore, the influence of the communities through their local government representatives is minimal. It is also clear from the research that local governments are appendages of the state. Finally, the beneficiary projects hardly offer political learning of the liberal democratic values.

Date of Award	Jun 2022
Original language	English
Supervisor	Markus Ketola (Supervisor), Shane MacGiollabhui (Supervisor) & Conor Murray (Supervisor)