Accountability Without Enforcement: Sub-National Governance and the Limits of Democratic Oversight in Africa

Africa's democratic future is increasingly decided below the national level. Federal and devolved systems across the continent have transferred substantial fiscal and service-delivery responsibility to states, provinces, counties and local governments, yet the accountability institutions attached to that transfer remain weak, uneven and frequently unenforced. Sub-national legislatures approve budgets they cannot verify. Auditors general publish reports that are never debated. Public accounts committees convene irregularly, if at all. Citizens who encounter the state most directly at this level often have the least reliable information about how it spends.
This panel asks why sub-national accountability under-performs in Africa and what closes the gap. Its organising premise is that the binding constraints are less often legal than political and behavioural. Constitutional and statutory frameworks across much of the continent already provide for legislative oversight, audit independence and public reporting. What is missing is the incentive structure, party discipline, institutional capacity and information environment that would make those provisions operative. Comparative evidence across African sub-national units sharpens the puzzle: fiscal capacity is a poor predictor of transparency, and some of the wealthiest and most administratively developed jurisdictions perform worst on audit disclosure.
We welcome empirical, comparative and theoretical papers, which must be grounded in African cases, whether single-country, sub-national comparative or cross-national. Contributions may address sub-national legislative oversight and committee practice; audit institutions and the fate of audit findings; fiscal transparency and budget disclosure; executive-legislative relations at sub-national level; civil society, media and citizen-led accountability; the effects of decentralisation reforms; digital and open-contracting tools; and comparisons with sub-national experience in Latin America, South Asia or Southern Europe. Papers using original data, whether survey, interview, archival or coded documentary evidence, are particularly encouraged. We invite scholars and practitioners based within and outside the continent, the decisive criterion being the fit of the research rather than the location of the researcher.
The panel speaks directly to the Congress theme by relocating the question of democratic uncertainty away from national elections and towards the layer of government where citizens actually meet the state. Where sub-national accountability fails, national democratic credentials become formal rather than substantive.