This thesis asks when and how ordinary citizens gain substantial control over important collective decisions. In particular I highlight conditions that explain citizen control of decision-making in participatory budgeting programmes worldwide. The thesis further sets out to test the value of new tools in comparative political science for answering such a question. I apply Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) in an attempt to cumulate existing knowledge and engage in logical systematic comparison across cases. It is shown that the QCA approach is an underutilised complement to existing research strategies in the social sciences. Despite some important challenges and limitations outlined in the thesis, QCA is shown to be an effective tool for cumulating and systematically reviewing evidence in order to contribute to the development of knowledge about social phenomena in a coherent way. QCA can effectively inform research's choices about the requisite degrees of parsimony and complexity to use in explaining social phenomena. Contrary to previous findings based on single-case of small-N analysis I find that there are no single necessary conditions for achieving or negating strong democratic outcomes in participatory programmes. The meaningful involvement of citizens in governing collectively occurs when both political and administrative leaders have the will and capacity to implement programmes and this is combined with either fiscal freedom to spend money on programmes or active demand for involvement from civil society actors. I show however considerable equifinality in causation as bureaucratic and political support can contribute to failure where both civil society support and finance are absent.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:635477 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Ryan, Matthew |
| Contributors | Smith, Graham ; Stoker, Gerard |
| Publisher | University of Southampton |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/373850/ |
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