Dissertation Project

“Bringing Government Closer to the People”: Essays on Electoral Institutions, Representation, Accountability and Urban Service Provision

During the 1980s and 1990s, many governments, particularly in Latin America and Europe, introduced nationwide or partial reforms to decentralize governance structures and make electoral institutions more inclusive at different levels of sub-national politics (Myers and Dietz 2002; Falleti 2005, 2010; Mayka 2019). The expectation was to enhance democratic representation at different levels of sub-national politics (Myers and Dietz 2002; Falleti 2005; Mayka 2019) and transform cities into key forums for innovation in policy-making and electoral competition (Holland 2017; Pasotti 2010).

In response to this decentralization trend, many cities have created second-tier or borough governments, which are appointed or elected sub-municipal governments in charge of performing multiple administering and governing functions within the city. In this project, I study how these hyper-local governments' presence and governance structure contribute to the political representation process and the provision of urban goods and services. Broadly, I seek to answer three questions:

1. Who participates in these elections? – Who votes?

2. What type of candidates run and get elected? – Who gets elected?

3. How do they affect the geographic distribution of public goods? – Who benefits?

I use Bogotá, Colombia, as a case study, representative of a set of mega-cities and large cities around the world* where millions of residents live in complex layers of local governance and multiple income-segregated districts, experiencing differentiated access to public goods and services.

Suggested Citation: Muñoz, Manuela, “Bringing Government Closer to the People”: Essays on Electoral Institutions, Representation, Accountability and Urban Service Provision (June 27, 2024). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4954613 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4954613

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