Local Public Services Performance and Unofficial ... - Pact Cambodia

are dependent upon but only partially determined by national level
interests, and the diversity of local circumstances and their often limited
rent-seeking opportunities provide more scope for pilots and incremental
policy learning, than the macro-institutional changes that directly affect the
country's most powerful.
From the above perspective, the most interesting and promising local level is
that of the Commune. This is the lowest level responsible for or involved with public
service provision. Above this level, it is an independent directly elected level of
government, which makes for a very different environment as far as popular demand
for accountability and responsiveness compared to the other sub-national levels that are
under the control of the national government (districts and provinces).
There is a lot of evidence that Cambodians (traditionally) do not look upon
government as representing their collective interest nor do they hold strong
expectations regarding government as a duty bearer with respect to public
services. Rather government is seen as a potentially dangerous outside force that is
to be avoided. To the extent that these adverse attitudes are changing, they are
changing fastest regarding the level of government that is closest, i.e. at the
commune level. Public opinion towards the lowest level of government is still not
very positive and even negative. However, it is consistently more positive than
towards any higher level of government. 6 Also, the finding that people perceive
improvement since the commune administration changed from an appointed to an
elected level of government is very evident in any study probing the opinions of
the general population and/or the elected officials (Commune Councilors). 7 The
study’s results are quite clear with respect to developments since the 2002
Commune/Sangkat elections: 85 percent of respondents found that the local
development in their community is better than before.
Obviously, international literature gives as much reason for pessimism as
hope regarding the relationship between corruption and decentralized
government. 8 The “... literature on decentralization and corruption points in
different directions and provides no clear-cut conclusions” (Fjeldstad, p.17). It is
clear that only the study of the “concrete inter-linkages between state institutions
and society”...have to be probed in detailed case studies “to explore the multiple
ways in which they influence and shape each other” (ibid. p.20). This includes
both the formal structures and the informal networks of patronage and social
domination because a key question is the necessary conditions to reduce the risks
of local government dominated by local elites. The evidence to date points
towards the Cambodian Commune administration being quite as hampered by
6 E.g. Ninh et al. (2005), p.19, CSD (2005A), p.45
7 For comparable results, see e.g. Rusten et al. (2003), Biddulph (2003), Ninh et al. (2005)
8 See e.g. Fjeldstad, O. (2003), World Bank (2005).
4 Local Public Services: Performance and Unofficial Fees – November 2006