Jonathan Phillips

My research focuses on how relationships between politicians and citizens can change, and specifically on when effective accountability relationships can be rapidly created. When do exploited clients--dependent on political connections for access to public services--become empowered citizens--able to claim objective rights to public services? In Brazil, India and Nigeria, using localized measures of public services I use spatial analysis to identify how experiences with the state can alter the demands voters place on government: the claims they make and the implicit voting rules they apply at the ballot box. In Ghana, under an IQSS project, I have supported the Center for Democracy and Development to generate and disseminate information on public services in order to investigate how information builds public accountability.