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The Political Economy of NGO Service Provision

Evidence from an Ancillary Field Experiment in Uganda

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 August 2022

Jeremy Springman Open the ORCID record for Jeremy Springman [Opens in a new window]
Jeremy Springman*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA E-mail: jeremy.springman@duke.edu
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Abstract

The share of basic services that NGOs deliver has grown dramatically in developing countries due to increased receipt of aid and philanthropy in these countries. Many scholars and practitioners worry that NGOs reduce reliance on government services and, in turn, lower demand for government provision and undermine political engagement. Others argue that NGOs prop-up poorly performing governments that receive undeserved credit for the production, allocation, or welfare effects of NGO services. Using original surveys and a randomized health intervention, implemented in parallel to a similar universal government program, this article investigates the long-term effect of NGO provision on political attitudes and behavior. Access to NGO services increased preferences for NGO, relative to government, provision. However, political engagement and perceptions of government legitimacy were unaffected. Instead, the intervention generated political credit for the incumbent president. This study finds that citizens see NGOs as a resource that powerful government actors control, and they reward actors who they see as responsible for allocation of those resources.

Keywords

credit attributionfield experimentsforeign aidhealthlegitimacyNGOsservice provision
Type
Research Article
Information
World Politics , Volume 74 , Issue 4 , October 2022 , pp. 523 - 563
Copyright
Copyright © 2022 Trustees of Princeton University

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