MIT GOV/LAB

Across the world, #participatorydemocracy has been celebrated as the best pathway for #sustainabledevelopment and prosperity, the most salient form of which continues to be #generalelections. This is despite growing evidence that election turnouts are falling and the promise of representative systems to function efficiently and justly is not being realized, leading citizens to sometimes favor more strict, authoritarian-style leaders. In many contexts, what happens in between elections cycles - such as interactions between citizens, politicians, and bureaucrats - is becoming more consequential in shaping political, social and economic outcomes of democracies. Elections are now often the culmination of these interactions but not the place where change is always made, especially for non-elected officials. Busara’s research over the years shows that motivating citizen engagement, especially for sustained action, is very difficult. This body of work has led us to zoom in on two features of participatory democracy that play crucial roles in influencing political discourse, meaningful citizen engagement, and government responsiveness - civil society organizations and information ecosystems. In this groundwork report, I synthesize some of the key learnings from Busara’s work with civil society organizations over the years, including: 1. Grassroots CSOs are deeply embedded in the communities they work in, and are therefore best placed to understand and highlight their pressing challenges?by citizens and can often help to highlight these issues, while mobilizing for the right action. 2. Governance systems are complex, but by combining our knowledge from behavioral science with systems analysis, we can tap into the opportunities that motivate engagement to understand how decisions are made and use this framework to build interventions that focus on the identified behavioral factors such as social norms, political efficacy, access to information, or trust in government. ? 3. Often, complex challenges require collaboration. However, the current funding landscape may foster or hinder collaboration and experimentation among CSOs, which in turn impacts their ability to motivate citizen participation in governance. You can learn more by following the link below. https://lnkd.in/dd3uvm9x Busara, Francis Meyo, Alisa Zomer, Mareike Schomerus, Salim Kombo, Brenda A. Ogutu, David Muruaru MIT GOV/LAB #Governance #CitizenEngagement #Democracy #PublicPolicy #Research #Insights

???? Who Wants to be Legible? New Study on Digitalization and Intergroup Inequality in Kenya ?? In the past few?decades, governments across the globe have introduced #DigitalID systems, in an attempt to make populations more legible to the state. By 2022, at least 120 countries had biometric passports and 70 had biometric eID cards. In a new study, WZB researchers Lisa Garbe and Alexandra Scacco, and WZB alumni Nina McMurry and Kelly Zhang ask whether the introduction of digital identity documents (eIDs), can reduce inequality or if they exacerbate political inequalities. ?? Their study, “Who Wants to be Legible? Digitalisation and Intergroup Inequality in Kenya” is based on surveys with more than 2,000 Kenyans in which the reactions to the potential benefits (e.g., easier access to state services) and risks (e.g., increased state surveillance) of introducing eIDs were evaluated – with a particular focus on whether the interviewees are part of a politically marginalized ethnic group. ?? Key findings: ?? Even though they see potential surveillance risks, citizens are largely positive about eIDs, but: ?? Marginalized Somali Kenyans are more concerned about?the potential for surveillance.? ?? Members of the opposition group (Luo) are also more concerned about potential impacts on electoral integrity and political participation. ?? In field-based qualitative interviews, members of marginalized groups acknowledged surveillance risks, but expressed hope that eIDs – by facilitating e-governance – can help reduce everyday forms of discrimination they experience in in-person contacts with authorities. The study was recently published online at Comparative Political Studies ?and is available open access. You can read it here ?? https://lnkd.in/etGcF5Z5 TIFA Research MIT GOV/LAB Busara Evidence in Governance and Politics Universit?t Hamburg Women Also Know Stuff Macartan Humphreys Nora Chirikure ??The graph shows how supportive dominant and opposition groups and "securitized"- heavily policed ethnic groups - are of different measures connected to the introduction of eIDs.

Excited to welcome the newest cohort of SERC Scholars! Last night, 80 undergraduate and graduate students from nearly 20 MIT departments gathered for orientation, marking the start of their journey to advance the Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing. During the 2024-2025 academic year, the newly minted scholars will work on research projects led by SERC group leaders, investigating such topics as generative AI and democracy, combatting deepfakes, examining data ownership, and the societal impact of gamification, amongst others. They'll also have the opportunity to engage in regular lunches and talks with the SERC Scholars community, meet-and-greets with pioneering leaders from academia, industry, and the public sector, and participate in SERC seminars. Let's go!

Trust in government is essential for social cohesion, effective institutions, and economic growth. According to a recent Afrobarometer trust score, less than 50% of Kenyans trust their Parliament, Presidency, and Judiciary, with the score declining over the years (see comments for references). In collaboration with MIT GOV/LAB, we surveyed 11,000 people about My County Hub, a joint effort between the county government and Safaricom PLC, to see if teaming up with a trusted private company could improve trust in government. Here’s what we found: ? We did not find that trust in Safaricom can be transferred to trust in the government.? ? Highlighting Safaricom’s role boosts willingness to use the platform but may hurt trust in the government among those with low trust in government to begin with. ? People with low trust in the government didn’t gain trust after learning about the partnership; instead, they saw the government as less capable. ? Those who trusted both Safaricom and the government saw their trust grow after learning about the collaboration. Nuole (Lula) Chen, Salim Kombo and Will Sullivan share more in this blog post: https://lnkd.in/dXRjr3Ce